THE 
UNIVERSITY 

£*   °F 


Prvm  a  r/totoyraptt  l>y  C.  if.  BM,  Washington,  V.  C'  —  Cupyrighted. 


COMPLETE  HISTORY 

OF  THE 

LIFE-^TRIAL 

— OF — 

CHARLES  JULIUS  GUITEAU, 

ASSASSIN    OF   PRESIDENT    GARFIELD. 


A  GRAPHIC   SKETCH   OF   HIS   ERRATIC   CAREER   AS  DETAILED  (EX 
PRESSLY   FOR   THIS    WORK)   BY   HIS   FORMER   WIFE,  MRS. 
DUNMIRE;    ALSO,  AN    AUTOBIOGRAPHY,    AS    DIC 
TATED  BY  HIMSELF  SINCE  THE  SHOOTING. 

AND 

A  CAREFULLY  PREPARED  HISTORY   OF    THE   TRIAL,  IN    MANY    RE 
SPECTS   THE  MOST   REMARKABLE  OF   THE   PRESENT   CENTURY, 
GIVING  ALL  THE  MOST  IMPORTANT  AND  INTERESTING  POR 
TIONS   OF  THE  TESTIMONY,  THE  STARTLING  INTERRUP 
TIONS  BY  THE  PRISONER,  INCIDENTS,  ARGUMENTS  OF 
COUNSEL,    CHARGE    BY    THE    JUDGE,   SENTENCE, 
&c.,    &c..    AS    REPORTED    AND    EDITED 

BY  H.  G.  AND  C.  J.  HAYES, 

Special  Stenographic  Reporters  for  the  N.    Y.  Associated  Press. 


AMPLY  ILLUSTRATED. 


HUBBARD  BROS.,  PUBLISHERS: 

PHILADELPHIA,  BOSTON,  CHICAGO,  CINCINNATI,  ATLANTA,  KANSAS  CITY. 

A.  L.  BANCROFT  &  Co.,  SAN  FRANCISCO,  JOHN  BURNS, 

ST.  Louis,  Mo. 


COPYRU^.HTEI),    l882. 


PREFACE. 


SELDOM  has  the  civilized  world  been  so  startled  as  by  the 
unparalleled  crime  committed  by  Charles  Julius  Guiteau,  the 
assassin  of  the  late  honored  and  beloved  President  of  the 
United  States,  Jair.es  Abram  Garfield.  Seldom  has  a  trial 
been  anticipated  with  such  wide-spread  interest;  and  when 
jn  progress,  seldom  has  a  trial  had  so  many  strange  incidents, 
so  marvelously  blending  the  farce  with  the  tragedy,  as  this 
trial  of  Garfield's  murderer. 

The  history  of  Guiteau's  wild  and  wicked  career,  his  politi 
cal  and  religious  freaks,  his  various  business  ventures  ;  the 
history  of  his  last  most  startling  crime  ;  the  investigation  of 
experts  as  to  his  sanity  or  insanity;  his  unprecedented  de 
portment  while  on  trial ;  his  comments,  questions,  answers, 
repartees  and  denunciations  of  judge,  jury,  witnesses  and 
lawyers ;  these  and  kindred  matters  stamp  this  trial  as  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  of  the  world.  It  is  full 
of  absorbing  interest,  and  every  lover  of  our  murdered  Presi 
dent  must  desire  to  read  it. 

Because  of  these  facts,  the  Publishers  of  this  volume  have 
gone  to  great  expense  to  secure  the  services  of  Mrs.  Annie  J. 
Dunmire,  the  divorced  wife  of  the  criminal,  of  Mr.  Edmund 
A.  Bailey  and  the  authorized  stenographic  reporters  in  order 
to  furnish  the  official  and  most  complete  record  of  the  whole 
matter  that  will  be  offered  to  an  interested  and  expectant 
public. 

This  is  the  only  work  for  which  Guiteau's  former  wife  has 
given  a  full  account  of  this  man  as  she  knew  him.  It  is  also 
the  only  one  containing  his  autobiography  as  given  in  jail  to 

(v) 

96fi94 


v|  PREFACE. 


the  Government  stenographer ;  and  the  only  account  of  the 
trial  which  has  been  edited  by  the  special  stenographers  of 
the  Associated  Press,  right  from  the  records  taken  by  them 
on  the  spot  as  they  occurred. 

This  trial  is  that  of  the  assassin  of  President  Garfield,  and 
it  reveals  the  true  character  of  the  assassin,  and  the  subtle  mo 
tives  that  actuated  him  in  committing  that  horrible  deed  of 
blood.  This  trial  has  cost  the  Government  an  immense  sum, 
possibly  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  in  many  other 
respects  it  is  so  remarkable  that  it  will  assume  in  history  a 
dignity  infinitely  above  ordinary  murder  trials. 

This  trial  developes  the  insanity  question  as  it  has  never 
before  been  opened.  Insanity  is  one  of  the  most  intricate, 
delicate  and  troublesome  questions  known  to  jurisprudence, 
and  is  frequently  and  often  successfully  set  up  as  a  defense 
to  clear  wicked  men  of  great  crime.  There  has  been  brought 
out  in  this  trial  the  ablest  expert  testimony  in  the  land  re 
garding  the  nice  shadings  and  obscure  workings  of  insanity 
and  the  peculiar  plea  of  "Divine  inspiration." 

This  trial  teaches  a  great  lesson.  The  striking  contrast 
between  Guiteau  and  Garfield,  the  assassin  and  his  victim; 
the  immense  distance  between  the  greatest  earthly  glory  and 
the  degradation  of  the  gallows.  The  value  of  right  principles, 
honesty  and  industry,  in  contrast  with  indolence,  vanity  and 
deceit  as  the.  main -springs  of  action  ;  are  some  of  the  great 
lessons  forcibly  presented  in  this  "  Life,  Autobiography  and 
Trial  of  Guiteau." 

For  these  reasons,  as  well  as  to  meet  the  popular  demand, 
this  volume  is  confidently  sent  forth  by 

THE  PUBLISHERS. 


CONTENTS. 


PART   FIRST. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF  GUITEAU,   .         .        '•  .         17 


PACK 


PART   SECOND. 

MARRIED  LIFE  OF  GUITEAU,     .         i,     . '  .         .       ~v        67 


PART  THIRD. 

TRIAL  OF  GUITEAU,  .         .         .         .        ~        ^       139 

CHAPTER  I. 
Introductory,    .         .         .         .         .         .         .'    %  .       141 

CHAPTER  II. 
Indictment  and  Pica,         .         .         .         .  149 

CHAPTER  III. 
Impaneling  a  Jury,    .         .         .         .         .   '      .         .158 

(vii) 


Viii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

PAGE 

The  Prosecution, 169 


CHAPTER  V. 
The  Defense,    .         .         .         .         .'  .     .         .         .       220 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Rebutting  Testimony,  etc.,  .  322 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Arguments  of  Counsel,  etc.        .....       386 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Charge  to  the  Jury,  etc.,    .  ...       497 

CHAPTER  IX. 
The  Finding  of  the  Jury, 5T7 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Portrait  of  Guiteau, 
The  Assassin  in  His  C;.-ll, 
Guiteau  in   1869,       . 
Guiteau's  Wife  in   1869,    . 
Portrait  cf  Garfield, 

George  M.  Scoville, 
Prison   Van  with  Guiteau, 

His  Honor,  Judge  Cox,   . 
District-Attorney  Corkhill, 
Hon.  James  G.  Blame,     . 
Assassination  of  President  Garfield, 
Dr.  D.  W.  Bliss,        . 
Dr.  D.  Hayes  Agnew, 


FRONTISPIECE. 
PAGE. 

57 

70 


140 

156 
159 

163 
170 
iSi 
187 

212 
213 


x  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Dr.   F.   H.   Hamilton,       ...  .     PAGE     213 

Dr.   Robert  Reyburn,         .                             .  .215 

Dr.  J.  K.  Barnes,     ...  .218 

Dr.  J.  J.   Woodward,        ...  .         .       219 

Scene  in  Court,          .          .         .         .          .  .          .,227 

Mrs.   Scoville,             ...  .249 

John  Wilson  Guiteau,       .          .          .          .  •                  254 

Hon.  Robert  T.  Lincoln,          .  323 

Mr.  Porter  Arraigning  the  Prisoner,  .        479 

Leaving  the  Court-House  after  the  Verdict,  .        517 

Guiteau' s  Outlook,  5J9 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 


OF 


CHARLES  JULIUS  GUITEAU, 

ASSASSIN  OF 

PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.     •- 


REPORTED  STENOGRAPHICALLY  BY  EDMUND  A.  BAILEY. 


07) 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

OF 

CHARLES  JULIUS  GUITEAU 


HISTORY    OF    THIS    SKETCH. 

THE  assassin,  Charles  Guiteau,  has  narrated  the 
story  of  his  life.  To  print  it  entire  would  demand 
an  immense  amount  of  space.  In  a  literary  point 
of  view,  the  work  is  of  no  value  whatever.  As 
the  record  of  a  man  who  will  stand  in  all  our  his 
tory  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  our  criminals,  it 
possesses  a  special  interest  and  importance.  Gui 
teau,  in  a  series  of  interviews,  dictated  the  work 
which  follows,  and  the  passages  within  quotation- 
marks  contain  the  exact  language  which  he  used, 
as  taken  down  by  a  shorthand  writer. 

His  vanity  is  literally  nauseating.  Guiteau  has 
an  idea  that  the  civilized  world  is  holding  its 
breath  waiting  to  hear  of  the  minutest  details  of 
his  career.  He  thinks  the  people  have  an  espe 
cially  acute  desire  to  be  fully  informed  concerning 
his  conduct  during  confinement  in  jail,  and  he. has 
frequently  urged  visiting  correspondents  to  de 
scribe  his  dress  and  demeanor.  At  the  interviews 
Guiteau  usea  a  memorandum  containing  a  list  of 

(19) 


2O  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

subjects  about  which  he  wished  to  talk.  He  spoke 
with  deliberation,  occasionally  emphasizing,  some 
what  dramatically,  with  his  voice  or  by  gesture,  a 
remark  which  he  deemed  of  transcendent  import 
ance,  or  chuckling  at  the  mention  of  some  inci 
dent  which  he  considered  amusing.  He  observed 
the  utmost  discrimination  as  to  language,  many 
times  balancing  in  his  mind  for  some  moments  the 

o 

appropriateness  of  an  expression  or  word,  and 
even  directing  the  manner  of  paragraphing  and 
punctuation.  He  objected  strenuously  to  the 
"continuity  of  his  thought"  being  disturbed  by 
interruption,  and  frequently  stated  so  in  a  most 
imperious  way,  intimating  that  the  interruption 
had  placed  in  immediate  jeopardy  of  destruction 
some  thought  of  vital  interest  and  importance  to 
the  community. 

GUITEAU'S    VIEW  OF  THE  ASSASSINATION. 

The  assassin  begins  with  a  brief  chapter,  which 
he  calls  "Introduction,"  in  which  he  seeks  to  ex 
plain  his  crime.  "I  have  not,"  he  says,  "used  the 
words  'assassination'  or  'assassin'  in  this  work. 
These  words  grate  on  the  mind  and  produce  a  bad 
feeling.  I  think  of  General  Garfield's  condition 
as  a  removal  and  not  as  an  assassination.  My  idea, 
simply  stated,  was  to  remove  as  easily  as  possible 
Mr.  James  A.  Garfield,  a  quiet  and  good-natured 
citizen  of  Ohio,  who  temporarily  occupied  the 
position  of  President  of  the  Uniteclfctates,  and 
substitute  in  his  place  Mr.  Chester  A.  Arthur,  of 


GUITEAU,   THE   ASSASSIN.  2l 

New  York,  a  distinguished  and  highly  estimable 
gentleman. 

"Mr.  Garfield  I  intended  to  quietly  remove  to 
Paradise  (which  is  a  great  improvement  on  this 
world),  while  Mr.  Arthur  saved  the  Republic." 
He  adds:  " Not  a  soul  in  the  universe  knew  of 
my  purpose  to  remove  the  President.  If  it  has 
failed  I  shall  never  attempt  it  again.  My  motive 
was  purely  political  and  patriotic,  and  I  acted  un 
der  Divine  pressure.  It  was  the  same  kind  of 
pressure  that  led  Abraham  to  sacrifice  his  son 
Isaac.''  These  hysterical  utterances  are  followed 
by  what  he  calls  an  "Address  to  the  American 
People,"  in  which  he  reiterates  the  declaration  that 
he  alone  is  responsible.  "The  President's  nomina 
tion,"  he  says,  "was  an  act  of  God;  his  election 
was  an  act  of  God;  his  removal  is  an  act  of  God. 
These  three  specific  acts  of  the  Deity  may  give 
the  clergy  a  text." 

A    CHAPTER    IN    GENEALOGY.. 

Guiteau  then  goes  on  to  tell  about  his  family. 
"  My  full  name"  he  says,  "is  Charles  Julius  Guiteau. 
I  have  dropped  the  Julius ;  I  prefer  to  be  known 
as  Charles  Guiteau.  My  surname  is  spelt  G-u-i- 
t-e-a-u ;  it  is  pronounced  Get'-o.  It  is  a  French 
name.  My  father's  ancestor,  two  hundred  years 
or  more  back,  was  a  physician  connected  with  the 
royal  family  of  France.  I  do  not  know  much 
about  my  genealogy.  There  is  a  John  M.  Guiteau 
in  New  York,  who  belongs  to  our  family,  and  who 


2  2  A  UTOBIO  GRAPH  Y  OF 

has  its  genealogy.  He  is  a  lawyer  and  a  man  of 
considerable  wealth,  I  believe.  He  has  lived  in 
New  York  about  twenty-five  years,  and  formerly 
practised  law  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

"There  were  two  brothers  named  Guiteau,  who 
came  to  this  country,  as  I  understand  it,  from 
France,  a  good  many  years  ago — my  father's  an 
cestor  and  the  ancestor  of  John  M.  Guiteau.  These 
are  the  only  two  branches  of  the  Guiteau  family 
in  America  that  I  know  of.  My  father's  family 
settled  in  Central  New  York ;  John  M.  Guiteau's 
ancestors  went  to  Ohio.  My  paternal  grand 
father  was  a  physician  and  a  very  prominent  one, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  near  Utica,  N.  Y. 
My  father  was  born  at  Whitesboro',  near  Utica,  N. 
Y.,  in  1 8 10.  He  died  in  August,  1880,  at  Free- 
port,  111.,  having  lived  there  for  about  forty  years. 
He  originally  was  a  merchant.  He  was  Clerk  of 
the  Circuit  Court  of  Stevenson  county  one  term. 
After  that,  for  about  twelve  years,  he  was  cashier 
of  the  Second  National  Bank  at  Freeport.  He 
was  a  very  good  man,  a  very  pious  man  and  an 
intelligent  man. 

"  About  thirty  years  ago,  he  became  interested 
in  the  publications  of  John  H.  Noyes,  who  is  the 
founder  of  the  Oneida  Community,  and  was  un 
der  his  influence  more  or  less  during  that  entire 
period.  I  used  to  hear  him  talk  about  the  Com 
munity  a  great  deal  in  his  family  and  I  became  in 
terested  in  it,  in  that  way,  in  my  early  boyhood. 


GUITEAUt   THE  ASSASSIN.  27 

My  mother  died  when  I  was  seven  years  old. 
I  know  very  little  about  my  mother.  I  un 
derstood  she  was  a  woman  of  fine  mind  and  a 
lady  in  every  respect.  I  have  heard  her  very 
highly  spoken  of.  I  have  a  brother  named  John 
Wilson  Guiteau ;  he  is  eight  years  older  than  I 
am.  He  was  born  at  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan.  He 
lived  at  Freeport  in  his  early  days,  and  he  went 
to  Davenport,  Iowa,  in  1854,  and  lived  there  some 
fifteen  years.  He  was  a  lawyer  by  profession 
and  practiced  at  Davenport.  In  1869,  he  went  to 
New  York  city  and  entered  the  employ  of  the 
United  States  Life  Insurance  Company.  He  was 
with  them  two  years,  and  was  one  of  their  princi 
pal  men.  He  has  a  great  deal  of  insurance  brain. 
"  I  have  a  sister  who  is  married  to  George  Sco- 
ville,  Esq.,  an  attorney  at  Chicago.  They  were 
married  in  1853  and  have  several  children.  My 
mother  died  at  Freeport  when  I  was  seven  years 
old,  and  my  father  was  a  widower  for  five  years. 
He  then  married  a  lady  at  Freeport,  named  Maria 
Blood,  in  1853.  They  have  two  children  living — 
a  daughter  (my  half-sister),  about  twenty-five 
years  old,  and  a  son  (my  half-brother)  about 
twenty-three  years  old,  and  I  think  that  she  lost 
one  child  in  infancy." 

EARLY    LIFE    AND    HISTORY. 

Guiteau  next  gives  the  story  of  his  life:  He  was 
born  at  Fi^eport,  111.,  Septembers,  1841.  As  a 
boy,  he  says  he  knew  Mr.  E.  B.  Washburne  and 


2j_  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

General  John  M.  Scofield,  whom  he  remembers 
as  a  cadet  at  West  Point,  He  went  to  school  to 
Mr.  Burchard,  the  present  Director  of  the  Mint. 
Reading  Guiteau's  life,  as  written  by  himself,  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  he  is  a  creature  of  the  most 
intense  vanity.  "I  was  always,"  he  tells  us, 
"ambitious  to  be  somebody  and  was  a  great 
reader."  His  father  took  the  Tribune,  and  he  had 
a  great  reverence  for  Horace  Greely  and  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  from  whom  he  declares  he  got 
most  of  his  political  and  social  views.  His  father 
was  a  whig  and  a  republican  ;  of  moderate  means  ; 
in  religion  a  sort. of  fanatic  who  believed  in  what 
were  called  the  new  ideas  of  the  time.  Noyes,  of 
the  Oneida  Community,  made  a  great  impression 
on  him,  and  he  endeavored  to  inculcate  the  doc 
trines  of  that  peculiar  establishment  on  his  family. 
Guiteau  traces  all  his  misfortunes  and  failures  in 
life  to  his  early  training,  and  he  is  especially 
severe  on  his  father,  to  whom  he  attributes  most 
of  his  calamities  and  ill  success.  In  1859,  he 
desired  to  go  to  college.  His  father,  he  says, 
opposed  the  idea,  but  finally  consented,  and  he 
went  to  Ann  Arbor,  in  Michigan.  Some 
money — about  $1,000 — had  been  left  him  by  his 
maternal  grandfather,  a  Major  John  Howe,  who 
fondly  declared  that  he  "  had  more  brains  than  all 
the  rest  of  the  Guiteau  family,"  and  who  took  "  a 
great  interest  in  him."  Guiteau's  intention  was  to 
spend  two  years  there  fitting  himself  for  the  study 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  2- 

and  practice  of  the  law;  but  instead  of  going  to 
college  he  joined  the  Oneida  Community.  This 
was  in  June,  1860.  His  father  advised  him,  he 
says,  to  take  this  step,  and  he  has  never  ceased  to 
repent  of  it.  He  remained  there  five  or  six  years, 
during  which  he  had  scarcely  anything  to  do  with 
his  family. 

ONEIDA    COMMUNITY. 

The  picture  he  draws  of  it  is  a  gloomy  one. 
Noyes  was  harsh,  cold,  cruel,  and  exacted  the  most 
degrading  service.  He  worked  there  as  a  common 
laborer,  did  service  in  the  kitchen  and  on  the 
farm.  There  was,  however,  a  pretty  good  library 
there  and  in  it  he  spent  all  the  time  at  his  dis 
posal.  With  the  female  portion  of  the  society  he 
did  not  get  along  very  well.  They  made  fun  of 
him  and  wounded  his  self-esteem.  He  made  up 
his  mind  to  leave  in  a  short  time,  and  turned  his 
eyes  toward  New  York.  This  was  in  1865.  He 
had  about  $1,000,  and  he  conceived  the  idea  of 
starting  a  religious  newspaper  here,  for  which  he 
had  hit  upon  the  name  of  the  New  York  Daily 
Theocrat.  The  story  of  Horace  Greeley  and  the 
foundation  of  the  Tribune  were  in  his  mind,  and 
he  thought  he  could  accomplish  what  Mr.  Greeley 
had  accomplished.  Nothing,  he  says,  ever  came 
of  it.  His  New  York  trip  was  not  a  success.  He 
made  himself  at  home  in  the  rooms  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association ;  became  acquainted 
with  the  secretary,  Mr.  McBurney.  He  tried  to 
3 


25  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

find  something  to  do  ;  lived  in  Hoboken  in  an 
humble  way  from  April  to  August,  in  1865,  and 
in  his  distress  again  turned  to  Oneida.  He  wrote 
to  them  and  secured  a  position  on  trial  in  the  New 
York  agency,  where  he  remained  until  the  follow 
ing  November,  when  he  again  joined  the  parent 
establishment.  His  second  visit  lasted  until  No 
vember,  1866,  when  he  again  left.  The  story  that 
he  was  expelled  he  indignantly  denies.  In  No 
vember,  1866,  he  was  again  in  New  York,  hang 
ing  around  the  quarters  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  boarding  in  Brooklyn  and 
attending  Plymouth  Church. 

EXPLOITS    IN    THE    WEST. 

In  1867,  ne  turned  his  -eyes  toward  the  West. 
His  family,  with  whom  he  appears  to  have  had  little 
or  no  communication,  had  heard  in  some  way  that 
the  Oneida  Community  and  he  had  parted  com 
pany,  and  Mr.  Scoville,  his  brother-in-law,  sent 
him  a  letter  enclosing  $20  and  inviting  him  to 
that  city.  He  went,  but  remained  only  a  few 
months,  when  he  again  came  back  to  the  metro 
polis.  This  was  in  1867.  The  spring  of  the  fol 
lowing  year  again  found  him  in  Chicago,  studying 
law.  He  was  admitted  to  practice  in  a  short  time 
by  Charles  H.  Reed,  who  was  then  District- Attor 
ney.  Mr.  Reed,  it  appears,,  asked  him  a  few  sim 
ple  questions  about  law,  and  he  obtained  his  cer 
tificate. 

He    remained  in  Chicago  until    1871  :     "I  did 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  2~ 

well,"  he  says  ;  "  was  industrious  and  had  no  bad 
habits,  and  was  active  in  getting  business."  About 
this  time,  Guiteau  was  married  to  a  lady  whom  he 
had  met  at  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa 
tion  establishment  in  Chicago.  This  part  of  his 
career  is  narrated  with  a  minuteness  which,  while 
it  may  be  creditable  to  his  accuracy  and  fidelity  as 
a  biographer,  is  not  very  well  calculated  to  give  a 
favorable  idea  of  his  delicacy  or  sensitiveness  as 
a  lover  or  a  husband.  He  next  brings  us  down 
to  1871.  In  that  year,  he  turned  his  thoughts  to 
ward.  California.  He  went  there  and  failed.  His 
domestic  relations  were  not,  it  may  be  imagined, 
of  a  very  pleasant  character,  and  a  divorce  fol 
lowed  at  the  end  of  about  four  years. 

A    LAW    SUIT    WITH    THE   HERALD. 

Guiteau  agained  drifted  back  to  New  York  and 
set  himself  up  in  the  law.  He  was  doing  well  he 
says,  until  unfortunately  he  and  one  of  his  cases 
got  into  the  Herald's  law  reports.  It  seems  that  he 
was  engaged  by  some  parties  as  counsel  in  the 
collection  of  a  lot  of  claims  which  are  generally 
set  down  as  "worthless."  The  one  in  question 
was  for  $350.  "I  took  it,"  he  writes,  "  from  a 
friend  of  the  firm  that  owned  it.  This  party  was  not 
willing  to  advance  a  single  cent  in  defraying  ex 
penses  and  considered  the  claim  totally  worthless. 
After  a  great  deal  of  effort  and  time  I  succeeded 
in  collecting  a  portion  of  the  claim  and  the  balance 
I  directed  my  attorney,  South,  to  prosecute.  I 


2g  A  UTOBIO  GRAPH Y  OF 

kept  the  first  instalment  which  I  received  for  my 
services  and  disbursements.  I  felt  justified  in  do 
ing  this  because  the  parties  that  gave  me  the 
claim  had  not  advanced  me  a  cent  on  it  and 
considered  it  totally  worthless  at  the  time  I  took 
it.  They  insisted,  when  they  ascertained  that  a 
part  of  the  claim  had  been  paid,  that  I  ought  to 
pay  it  to  them.  I  declined  to  do  it.  Therefore 
they  commenced  proceedings  against  me  in  the 
Supreme  Court  before  Judge  Donohue,  at  Cham 
bers,  to  compel  me  to  disburse.  I  resisted  the 
application  successfully,  the  judge  holding  that  I 
was  right  in  my  course. 

"The  New  York  Herald's  law  reporter  pretended 
to  give  an  account  of  the  proceeding  before  Judge 
Donohue  to  compel  me  to  pay  over  the  money; 
he  wrote  up  his  article  in  a  very  sharp,  witty  style, 
and  headed  it  among  other  things,  'A  Profitable 
Collecting  Lawyer.'  I  do  not  remember  the  de 
tails  of  the  publication ;  I  only  remembor  that  it 
was  very  sharp  and  witty  and  that  it  did  me  a 
great  deal  of  harm.  I  therefore  went  to  the 
Herald  office  and  requested  a  retraction.  I  saw 
the  law  editor  and  he  put  me  off.  I  tried  to  see  the 
managing  editor,  with  the  same  effect,  and  finally 
I  commenced  a  suit  against  the  Herald  for  a  libel 
for  $100,000.  I  commenced  the  action  in  my  own 
name  against  the  proprietor.  I  filed  my  complaint 
setting  forth  the  facts;  Mr.  Townshend,  the 
Herald's  attorney,  answered  it.  I  made  an  appli- 


CVITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  Og 

cation  to  strike  out  certain  portions  of  the  answer 
as  irrelevant,  and  asking  for  other  relief.  The 
motion  was  heard  before  Judge  Lawrence,  in 
Chambers,  who  denied  my  motion.  The  matter 
has  thus  stood  in  court,  without  further  proceed 
ings,  from  that  day  to  this. 

"  The  Herald's  libel  appeared  in  April,  1874.  In 
December,  1874,  I  became  very  much  reduced  in 
circumstances ;  I  was  out  of  business  and  out  of 
money  and  out  of  friends.  I  had  not  been  in  New 
York  a  sufficient  length  of  time  to  get  thoroughly 
established  in  business.  Prior  to  the  Herald  pub 
lication  I  was  doing  well.  I  had  clients  and  every 
prospect  of  success.  I  had  been  in  New  York  for 
some  two  or  three  years.  After  the  Herald  pub 
lication  my  clients  got  demoralized,  and  the  news 
papers  talked  about  it  a  good  deal  at  the  time  and 
it  demoralized  me,  and,  to  make  it  brief,  I  got  all 
run  down  and  run  out.  I  lived  a  precarious  exist 
ence  there  during  the  summer  and  fall.  I  tried  to 

o 

get  on  to  my  feet  again  in  the  law  business.  I  got 
an  office,  but  could  not  get  enough  business  to 
pay  my  office-rent.  I  could  not  pay  my  board-bill, 
and  I  got  thoroughly  discouraged  and  demoralized, 
and  suffered  a  good  deal  on  account  of  the  Herald 
publication.  It  was  certainly  a  very  unjust  and 
injurious  publication,  and  something  that  no  law 
yer  could  possibly  endure  unless  he  was  well 
established." 

Guiteau  describes,  at  considerable   length,  the 

3* 


^o  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

sea  of  troubles  that  came  upon  him  as  the  result 
of  the  publication. 

DOWN    ON    THE    BLACK    LIST. 

"  I  was,"  he  writes,  "  in  great  distress.     I  could 
not  get  money  enough  to  pay  my  board  during  the 
summer,  and  I  owed  several  parties  for  board,  and 
they  were  pressing  me  for  it,  and  finally  I  got  my 
name  on  the  black  list  there  as  a  boarding-house 
beat,  and  it  was  circulated  among  boarding-house 
keepers.     That  was  in  1874,  and  one  night  in  De 
cember,  1874,  I  had  not  any  money  or  any  place 
to  go  to.     It  was  raining — a  cold,  bitter  night,  I 
remember — and  I  went  up  to  the  St.   Nicholas 
Hotel  desk  like  a  man,  registered  my  name  and 
told  the  clerk  I  would  like  a  room.     He  gave  me 
a  room  and  I  was  there  a  week,  and  during  this 
week  I  was  pressing  the  Herald  to  settle  my  claim. 
I  needed  the  money.     I  was  in  great  distress  of 
mind.     I  could  not  get  anything  to  do  and  I  had 
not  any  money.     I  went  around  to  the  newspaper 
offices  during  the  fall,  trying  to  get  something  to 
do,  and  I  tried  law  business.     They  were  all  full, 
and  I  got  an  office  myself  once  or  twice  and  tried 
to  get  business,  but  I  could  not  get  enough  to  pay 
my  office-rent,  and  I  gave  it  up.     I  got  all  run 
down  and  run  out  financially — out  of  friends  and 
out  of  business  and  out  of  money.     I  had  a  terri 
ble  hard  time  there  for  several  months. 

"  I  stayed  at  the  St.  Nicholas  one  week.     I  did 
not  have  any  other  place  to  go  to.     I  used  to  live 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  ^ 

around  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  and  that  part  of 
the  city ;  and  when  I  was  in  practice  I  had  money 
and  I  paid  my  bills  like  any  gentleman,  and  I  had 
plenty  of  bills  to  show  for  it.  The  first  two  or 
three  years  that  I  was  in  New  York  I  was  doing 
well.  I  had  business  and  I  had  money  and  I  had 
friends,  a  nice  office,  and  all  that ;  but  after  the 
Heralds  publication,  in  the  course  of  six  or  seven 
months,  I  got  all  run  down  and  run  out.  I  stayed 
at  the  St.  Nicholas  Hotel  for  a  week,  at  the  end  of 
it  they  presented  the  bill.  I  did  not  have  any 
money,  and  I  told  them  that  I  would  see  them 
about  it  in  a  day  or  two,  and  I  started  to  go.  Just 
at  that  moment  their  detective  came  out.  He  was 
a  burly  fellow  and  he  was  very  impudent.  I  had 
a  good  suit  of  clothes  on  and  he  looked  at  my 
coat  and  he  says :  *  Well,  that  is  a  good  coat ;  sup 
pose  we  take  that ;  suppose  we  put  him  out  under 
the  hydrant  and  open  the  hydrant  on  him ;  sup 
pose  we  take  him  around  to  the  other  hotels  and 
exhibit  him.'  The  detective  was  abusing  me  in 
that  way,  and  finally  I  lost  my  temper  and  I  told 
him  not  to  treat  me  in  that  way;  that  I  was  a  gen 
tleman  and  I  would  certainly  pay  them  in  a  very 
few  days;  that  I  was  expecting  some  money. 
Thereupon  he  got  angry  and  he  seized  me  by  the 
throat  and  marched  me  through  the  back  way  to 
the  Prince  street  station-house.  He  and  Mr. 
King,  one  of  the  junior  proprietors,  went  with  me 
to  the  station-house,  and  they  put  me  into  a  cell 


32  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

and  locked  me  up  all  night.  The  next  morning 
the  detective  came  there  and  came  to  my  cell,  and 
says,  '  How  are  you,  Professor?'  Says  I,  'I  am 
about  so-so.'  I  had  never  been  arrested  before 
in  my  life  and  I  felt  terribly  disgraced  and  very  in 
dignant  at  him  for  doing  it.  He  was  bluff  and 
hilarious  in  his  style  and  laughed  and  talked  to  me 
and  wanted  to  know  how  much  I  had  sued  the 
Herald  for,  and  asked  other  impertinent  ques 
tions." 

IN    THE    TOMBS. 

The  end  of  this  distressing  part  of  the  biography 
is  that  Guiteau  finally  got  into  the  Tombs  on  the 
charge  of  false  pretences  and  that  he  was  released 
through  the  agency  of  his  relative,  Mr.  Scoville, 
who  happened  to  be  in  the  city  at  the  time.  The 
Herald  episode  in  his  history  is  closed  up  with  the 
expression  of  the  opinion  that  he  would  consider 
it  a  handsome  thing  if  the  proprietor  would  send 
him  a  check  for  $10,000  and  call  the  thing 
"  square." 

THE    SECOND    ADVENT. 

In  the  fall  of  1875,  Guiteau  conceived  the  curi 
ous  idea  of  becoming  a  great  editor,  and  endeav 
ored  to  purchase  the  Chicago  Inter- Ocean.  "I 
intended,"  he  says,  "  to  make  it  the  great  paper 
of  the  Northwest."  He  talked  to  his  friends  about 
it;  but  it  is  needless  to  add  the  project  fell 
through.  In  the  spring  of  1876,  he  was  again  in 
Chicago  with  a  law  office.  Mr.  Moody  started  his 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN. 

3o 

revival  meetings  in  the  fall  of  that  year,  and  Gui- 
teau  was  of  course  on  hand.  About  this  time  his 
thoughts  turned  toward  theology. 

"Along  in  November,"  he  writes,  "I  began  to 
get  some  conceptions  about  the  second  coming  of 
Christ.  I  heard  the  Rev.  A.  Kitteridge,  the  well- 
known  Presbyterian  minister  of  Chicago,  say,  at 
Farwell  Hall  prayer-meeting  one  day,  that,  as  a 
man  of  God,  he  had  no  idea  when  Christ  would 
come.  There  seemed  to  be  an  impression  in  the 
public  mind  at  that  time,  and  has  been  ever  since, 
that  Christ  might  come  very  soon,  and  I  studied 
the  Bible,  and  this  passage  came  to  me  with  great 
force :  '  If  I  will  that  he  (John)  tarry  till  I  come, 
what  is  that  to  thee  ?'  This  idea  was  the  founda 
tion  of  my  subsequent  discoveries  in  reference  to 
the  second  coming  of  Christ,  as  set  forth  in  detail 
in  my  book,  '  The  Truth/  I  prepared  the  article 
on  the  second  coming  of  Christ,  at  the  Public 
Library  in  Chicago,  during  the  month  of  Decem 
ber,  1876.  I  went  there  and  got  the  New  Testa 
ment  and  the  Concordance  and  History,  and  I 
studied  it  up.  I  did  not  think  of  anything  else 
scarcely  during  the  entire  month  of  December, 
while  my  mind  was  running  on  that  idea  of  the 
second  coming  at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 
The  more  I  examined  the  New  Testament  with 
the  help  of  the  Concordance  to  find  out  just  what 
the  Testament  said  on  the  subject  of  the  second 
coming,  the  more  certain  I  was  that  I  got  at  the 


34 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 


truth  about  it,  and  that  article,  as  it  now  appears 
•in  my  book,  was  the  result  of  my  discovery  and 
research  and  study." 

A    LECTURE. 

"  Soon  after  writing  that  article  I  wanted  to  go 
out  lecturing  to  enlighten  the  world  in  reference 
to  the  discovery  which  I  conceived  I  had  made, 
and  I  got  the  Methodist  church  there — in  Chicago 
— and  I  had  my  intention  to  deliver  the  lecture, 
well  announced  in  all  the  Chicago  papers,  about 
the  lothor  I5th  of  January,  1877.  It  was  a  Satur 
day  night ;  a  cold,  bitter  night,  one  of  the  coldest 
nights  of  the  year,  and  after  making  some  prepa 
rations,  and  getting  the  hall,  after  considerable 
delay  and  trouble,  I  went  there  to  deliver  my  lec 
ture  on  the  '  Second  Coming  of  Christ  at  the  De 
struction  of  Jerusalem.'  The  announcement  was 
made  something  like  this:  'Admission,  twenty- 
five  cents ;  free  to  all  who  cannot  afford  to  pay 
twenty-five  cents.'  I  went  there  about  8  o'clock, 
and  found  about  twenty-five  people,  and  I  went  on 
to  the  stage  and  delivered  my  lecture  on  the 
1  Second  Coming  of  Christ  at  the  Destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  A.  D.  70.'  " 

"The  next  morning  the  Chicago  Tribune  gave 
me  about  three-quarters  of  a  column — what  they 
called  a  report  of  the  lecture,  setting  it  forth  in 
rather  unfavorable  light,  ridiculing  me,  etc.,  making 
fun  of  the  failure  of  it,  and  the  publication  did  me 
a  great  deal  of  harm.  It  brought  me  into  con- 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  ~~ 

tempt,  and  I  went  to  see  the  city  editor  about  it, 
and  he  was  on  a  high  horse  and  would  not  make 
any  correction  of  it,  and  I  went  to  see  Mr.  Sam. 
Medill,  the  managing  editor,  and  he  referred  the 
matter  to  the  city  editor,  and  they  would  not  either 
of  them  give  me  any  satisfaction.  They  claimed 
it  was  a  correct  report  of  what  happened,  and 
they  thought  it  would  have  been  a  great  deal 
better  if  I  had  not  attempted  to  deliver  the  lec 
ture,  and  I  certainly  thought  so  when  I  saw  their 
report  and  the  result  of  my  attempt.  I  finally 
persuaded  the  city  editor  to  publish  a  little  retrac 
tion,  which  he  did  the  next  morning,  which  relieved 
me  considerably  of  the  odium  of  the  previous 
publication."  Guiteau  next  describes  his  expe 
rience  as  a  lecturer  in  different  parts  of  the  coun 
try,  chiefly  in  the  West.  It  is  a  long  record  of 
failure  and  disappointment.  His  failure  as  a  theo 
logian  was  as  signal  as  his  failure  as  a  lawyer. 

THE     ASSASSIN    AS     A    POLITICIAN. 

Guiteau  next  gives  his  experience  as  a  poli 
tician:  "  I  was,"  he  says,  "  in  New  York,  from  July 
i,  1880,  until  the  5th  of  March,  1881.  During 
this  time,  I  was  around  the  headquarters  of  the 
National  Committee,  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel. 
I  was  in  the  habit  of  going  to  those  places. 
During  this  time,  I  made  the  personal  acquaint 
ance  of  the  leading  men  of  the  republican  party. 
I  had  my  speech,  entitled  "  Garfield  against 
Hancock"  printed  on  August  6  at  the  time  the 


3 6  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

Republican  Conference  was  held  at  the  Fifth 
Avenue  Hotel.  I  gave  or  sent  this  speech  to  all 
the  leading  men  at  that  conference.  This  was  my 
first  introduction  to  them.  Afterward,  as  I  met 
them,  I  introduced  myself  and  called  their  attention 
to  that  speech.  They  seemed  to  be  highly 
pleased  with  it,  and  that  was  the  beginning  of  my 
personal  acquaintance  with  them.  I  sent  it  to 
General  Arthur  and  Senator  Conkling,  and 
General  Logan,  and  Senator  Cameron,  and  all 
that  kind  of  men.  I  wanted  to  take  the  stump 
for  General  Garfield  in  August,  and  I  wrote  Mr. 
Elaine  (in  Maine)  about  it,  and  called  Governor 
Jewell's  attention  to  my  wish,  but  there  was  a 
great  pressure  on  Mr.  Elaine  from  their  quarters 
for  speakers.  Not  having  a  national  reputation 
he  did  not  use  me  in  Maine.  Governor  Jewell 
was  very  kind  to  me  personally.  The  disability  I 
labored  under  was  this :  I  had  ideas,  but  I  did  not 
have  a  national  reputation.  The  State  Commit- 
teemen  wanted  a  man  that  would  draw  a  lar^e 

o 

crowd.  So,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  I  only  delivered 
that  speech  once,  and  that  wras  at  a  colored  meet 
ing,  I  think,  on  Twenty-fifth  Street,  one  Saturday 
evening.  I  was  the  first  speaker  and  delivered  a 
portion  of  it  and  gave  it  to  the  reporters  in  print." 
After  the  result  was  known  in  November  Guiteau 
wrote  to  General  Garfield,  as  follows:  "We  have 
cleaned  them  all  out  just  as  I  expected.  Thank 
God !  Very  respectfully,  CHARLES_GUITEAU." 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN. 


37 


THE    AUSTRIAN    MISSION. 

Immediately  after  the  Indiana  election  Guiteau 
began  to  think  it  was  time  to  look  around  for  some 
thing.  He  wrote  to  the  President-elect,  suggest 
ing  that  he  might  be  a  candidate  for  the  Austrian 
Mission.  Early  in  March,  he  went  to  Washington, 
he  says,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  an  office.  He 
had  nothing  to  do  in  New  York,  except  solicit  for 
some  insurance  companies.  He  says:  "I  ad 
dressed  a  letter  to  President  Garfield  and  to 
Secretary  Elaine,  sometime  in  March,  I  should  say, 
calling  their  attention  to  my  services  during  the 
canvass  and  to  my  early  suggestion  to  General 
Garfield,  at  Mentor,  in  October,  and  also  in  Jan 
uary,  touching  the  Austrian  Mission.  I  heard 
nothing  about  the  Austrian  Mission  until  I  noticed 
in  the  paper  that  William  Walter  'Phelps,  of  New 
Jersey,  had  been  given  the  mission,  and  of  course 
that  ended  it. 

THE    PARIS    CONSULSHIP. 

"  I  then  sought  the  Paris  consulship.  I  spoke  to 
General  Logan  about  it,  and  he  said  that  he  would 
speak  to  General  Garfield  and  with  Mr.  Elaine. 
He  told  me  that  he  did  speak  to  General  Garfield, 
and  that  General  Garfield  agreed  to  leave  it  with 
Mr.  Elaine.  I  saw  Mr.  Elaine  about  it  several 
times  during  the  deadlock  in  the  Senate,  and  Mr. 
Elaine  said  that  they  had  not  got  to  that  yet.  He 
was  very»clever  at  that  time.  I  stood  well  with 
him  and  with  General  Garfield,  and  I  had  every 
4 


2 8  ALTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

reason  to  expect  that  they  intended  ,  as  soon  as 
they  got  to  it,  to  give  it  to  me.  Mr.  Walker,  the 
present  consul,  was  from  New  York,  and  had  been 
appointed  by  Mr.  Hayes  two  years  ago,  upon  the 
recommendation  of  ex-Secretary  Evarts,  and  I  did 
not  feel  that  Mr.  Walker  had  any  claim  upon 
General  Garfield  for  the  office,  as  the  men  who 
did  the  business  during  the  canvass  ought  to  be 
remembered.  And  I  have  an  impression  deci 
dedly  that  at  this  time  General  Garfield  and  Mr. 
Blaine  felt  as  I  did. 

"  Well,  I  called  at  the  White  House  to  see  Gen 
eral  Garfield  about  it  (after  General  Logan  had 
spoken  to  him  and  he  had  agreed  to  leave  the 
matter  to  Secretary  Blaine),  but  I  was  unable  to 
see  the  President.  I  only  called  the  President's 
attention  to  the  matter  once,  and  that  was  within 
two  or  three  days  after  I  reached  Washington.  I 
gave  the  President  my  speech  entitled,  '  Garfield 
against  Hancock/  which  I  delivered  in  New  York 
in  August,  1880.  I  marked  at  the  head  of  the 
speech  these  words:  *  Paris  Consulship/  which 
were  written  in  pencil,  and  then  drew  a  line  down 
to  my  name,  connecting  the  words '  Paris  consul 
ship'  with  my  name,  so  that  the  President  would 
remember  what  I  wanted.  This  was  the  only 
time  that  I  had  any  personal  conversation  with  the 
President  on  my  having  the  Paris  consulship.  He 
took  the  speech  and  ran  his  eye  over  it,  and  there 
were  other  people  pressing  around  him  and  I  left 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN. 

»j  y 

him  in  the  act  of  reading  my  speech*  I  went  into 
his  room  through  the  private  secretary's  room  and 
there  I  saw  Mr.  Morton,  Minister  to  France,  and 
General  Tyner  and  two  or  three  other  gentlemen 
of  that  character.  They  knew  me  and  I  was 
cleverly  received,  especially  by  Mr.  Morton.  He 
asked  me  about  my  health,  how  I  was  getting 
along,  etc.  This  interview  with  the  President  oc 
curred  about  the  7th  or  8th  of  March. 

LETTERS    TO    MR.    ELAINE. 

"  I  may  say  here  that  after  Mr.  Elaine  was  ap 
pointed  Secretary  of  State  I  had  not  much  expec 
tation  that  I  was  to  get  the  Austrian  Mission,  be 
cause  I  expected  that  it  was  to  be  given  to  one  of 
the  Elaine  men ;  but  I  did  think  and  I  did  feel  that 
I  had  a  right  to  press  my  application  for  the  Paris 
consulship  in  view  of  my  having  surrendered  any 
supposed  right  that  I  might  have  had  in  reference 
to  the  Austrian  Mission,  on  account  of  my  having 
called  General  Garfield's  attention  to  the  Austrian 
Mission  in  October  and  also  in  January.  I  aban 
doned  the  idea  of  obtaining  the  Austrian  Mission 
as  soon  as  I  saw  that  Mr.  Elaine  was  appointed 
Secretary  of  State,  but  I  did  feel  that  I  had  a  right 
to  press  my  application  for  the  Paris  consulship. 
During  the  deadlock  in  the  Senate  I  wrote  Mr. 
Elaine  several  notes. 

"  I  called  at  the  State  Department  several  times, 
but  he  was  generally  busy,  so  I  said  what  I  had  to 
by  a  brief  note.  I  always  addressed  him  famil- 


4Q  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

iarly  as  'Secretary  Elaine,'  or  'Mr.  Elaine.'  After 
the  deadlock  broke,  I  saw  Mr.  Elaine  at  the  State 
Department  one  day,  and  he  said  that  he  did  not 
think  that  the  President  would  remove  Mr.  Walker. 
This  was  the  first  intimation  from  either  the 
President  or  Mr.  Elaine  that  they  did  not  intend  to 
give  me  the  Paris  consulship.  I  was  surprised, 
and  I  said  to  Mr.  Elaine :  '  I  am  going  to  see  the 
President  and  try  and  induce  him  to  remove  Mr. 
Walker  and  give  me  the  Paris  consulship,  '  Well, 
if  you  can,  do  so/  said  Mr.  Elaine.  This  is  the  last 
conversation  I  have  had  with  him.  I  have  not 
spoken  to  him  on  any  subject  since.  A  few  days 
after  I  saw  Mr.  Elaine,  I  called  at  the  White 
House  to  get  the  President's  final  answer  in  refer 
ence  to  my  getting  the  Paris  consulship.  I  sent  in 
my  card  and  the  door-keeper  came  back  in  a  mo 
ment  and  said:  '  Mr.  Guiteau,  the  President  says 
it  will  be  impossible  for  him  to  see  you  to-day.'  I 
therefore  sent  him  a  little  note  and  told  him  about 
the  Paris  consulship. 

"  I  never  had  a  personal  interview  with  the  Presi 
dent  on  the  subject  of  the  Paris  consulship  except 
once,  and  that  was  when  I  handed  him  my  speech 
and  told  him  that  I  would  like  the  Paris  consul 
ship,  which  was  about  the  yth  or  8th  of  March. 
He  was  inaugurated  on  Friday  and  it  was  about 
the  middle  of  the  following  week  after  his  inaugu 
ration.  The  time  that  I  was  pressing  the  Paris 
consulship  began  about  the  first  week  in  March 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  .  l 

and  terminated,  I  should  say,  about  the  last  of 
April.  During  those  weeks  I  was  pressing  it  and 
expected  to  get  it.  I  have  never  had  any  final 
answer  either  from  the  President  or  from  Mr. 
Blaine  in  reference  to  my  having  the  Paris  consul 
ship.  It  did  not  have  the  slightest  influence  on 
me  one  way  or  the  other  in  reference  to  my  re 
moving  the  President. 

CONCEPTION    OF    THE    ASSASSINATION. 

"  I  conceived  the  idea  of  removing"  the  Presi- 

o 

dent,"  Guiteau  declares,  "  pending  the  answer,  and, 
so  far  as  the  Paris  consulship  had  any  influence  on 
my  mind  at  all,  it  would  have  deterred  me  from 
the  act,  because  I  expected  as  a  matter  of  fact 
that  I  would  get  the  Paris  consulship.  After  I 
conceived  the  idea  of  removing  the  President  I  did 
not  go  near  Mr.  Blaine  or  near  the  President  to 
press  my  application.  About  two  or  three  weeks 
intervened  from  the  time  that  I  called  at  the  Presi 
dent's  when  the  door-keeper  said, '  Mr.  Guiteau, 
the  President  says  it  will  be  impossible  for  him  to 
see  you  to-day,'  to  the  time  that  I  conceived  the 
idea  of  removing  him,  during  which  time  I  was 
waiting  patiently  for  my  answer,  which  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  I  have  never  yet  received. 

"  I  had  been  pressing  the  President  and  Mr. 
Blaine  for  an  answer  and  I  thought  that  it  would 
be  better  for  me  to  keep  away  from  them.  They 
had  my  address  and  I  thought,  if  they  concluded 
to  give  me  the  Paris  consulship,  they  would  notify 
4* 


42  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

me,  or  I  should  see  an  announcement  of  the  ap 
pointment  in  the  paper,  and,  as  I  have  stated,  after  I 
conceived  the  idea  of  removing  the  President,  I  did 
irot  go  near  the  President  or  Mr.  Elaine, 

"  My  conception  of  the  idea  of  removing  the 
President  was  this:  Mr.  Conkling  resigned  on 
Monday,  May  16,  1881.  On  the  following  Wed 
nesday  I  was  in  bed.  I  think  I  retired  about  8 
o'clock.  I  felt  depressed  and  perplexed  on  ac 
count  of  the  political  situation,  and  I  retired 
much  earlier  than  usual.  I  felt  wearied  in  mind 
and  body,  and  I  was  in  my  bed  about  9  o'clock 
and  I  was  thinking  over  the  political  situation, 
and  the  idea  flashed  through  my  brain  that  if  the 
President  was  out  of  the  way  every  thing  would  go 
better.  At  first  this  was  a  mere  impression.  It 
startled  me,  but  the  next  morning  it  came  to  me 
with  renewed  force,  and  I  began  to  read  the  papers 
with  my  eye  on  the  possibility  that  the  Presi 
dent  would  have  to  go,  and  the  more  I  read,  the 
more  I  saw  the  complication  of  public  affairs,  the 
more  was  I  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  remov 
ing  him.  This  thing  continued  for  about  two 
weeks.  I  kept  reading  the  papers  and  kept  being 
impressed,  and  the  idea  kept  bearing  and  bearing 
and  bearing  down  upon  me  that  the  only  way  to 
unite  the  two  factions  of  the  Republican  party,  and 
save  the  Republic  from  going  into  the  hands  of  the 
rebels  and  Democrats,  was  to  quietly  remove  the 
President. 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  ,  ~ 

PREPARING    FOR    THE    CRIME. 

"  Two  weeks  after  I  conceived  the  idea,  my  mind 
was  thoroughly  settled  on  the  intention  to  remove 
the  President.  I  then  prepared  myself.  I  sent  to 
Boston  for  a  copy  of  my  book,  'The Truth/  and  I 
spent  a  week  in  preparing  that.  I  cut  out  a  para 
graph,  and  a  line,  and  a  word,  here  and  there,  and 
added  one  or  two  new  chapters,  put  some  new 
ideas  in  it,  and  I  greatly  improved  it.  I  knew  that 
it  would  probably  have  a  large  sale  on  account  of 
the  notoriety  that  the  act  of  removing  the  Presi 
dent  would  give  me,  and  I  wished  the  book  to  go 
out  to  the  public  in  proper  shape.  That  was  one 
preparation  for  it. 

"Another  preparation  was  to  think  the  matter  all 
out  in  detail  and  to  buy  a  revolver  and  to  prepare 
myself  for  executing  the  idea.  This  required 
some  two  or  three  weeks,  and  I  gave  my  entire 
time  and  mind  in  preparing  myself  to  execute  the 
conception  of  removing  the  President.  I  never 
mentioned  the  conception  to  a  living  soul.  I  did 
most  of  my  thinking  in  the  park  and  on  the  street, 
and  I  used  to  go  to  the  Arlington  and  the  Riggs 
House  daily  to  read  the  papers. 

WATCHING    AN    OPPORTUNITY. 

"  After  I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  remove  him 
the  idea  when  I  should  remove  him  pressed  me, 
and  I  was  somewhat  confused  on  that.  I  knew 
that  it  would  not  do  to  go  to  the  White  House  and 
attempt  it,  because  there  were  too  many  of  his 


44 


A  UTOBIO  GRA  PH  Y  OF 


employes  about,  and  I  looked  around  for  several 
days  to  try  and  get  a  good  chance  at  him ;  and 
one  Sunday  (the  Sunday  before  he  went  to  Long 
Branch),  I  went  to  his  church  in  the  morning.  It 
is  a  small  frame  building,  and  I  stood  there  at  the 
door  a  moment.  I  was  a  little  late  ;  the  services 
had  progressed  about  one-third.  I  noticed  the 
President  sitting  near  an  open  window  about 
three  feet  from  the  ground,  and  I  thought  to 
myself,  '  That  would  be  a  good  chance  to  get  him.' 
I  intended  to  shoot  him  through  the  back  of  the 

o 

head  and  let  the  ball  pass  through  the  ceiling,  in 
order  that  no  one  else  should  be  injured.  And 
there  could  not  possibly  be  a  better  place  to  remove 
a  man  than  at  his  devotions.  I  had  my  revolver 
in  my  possession  when  I  first  went  to  the  church, 
having  purchased  it  about  ten  days  before  the 
President's  going  to  Long  Branch.  This  was  the 
Sunday  prior  to  his  leaving  for  Long  Branch  on 
Saturday.  During  that  whole  week  I  read  the 
papers  carefully.  I  thought  it  all  over  in  detail. 
I  thought  just  what  people  would  talk  and  thought 
what  a  tremendous  excitement  it  would  create,  and 
I  kept  thinking  about  it  all  the  week. 

"  I  made  up  my  mind  that  the  next  Sunday  I 
would  certainly  shoot  him  if  he  was  in  church  and 
I  got  a  good  chance  at  him.  Thursday  of  the 
same  week,  I  noticed  in  the  paper  that  he  was 
going  to  Long  Branch,  and  on  the  following  Satur 
day  he  did  go  to  the  Branch  for  Mrs.  Garfield's 


GL'ITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  ** 

health.  I  went  to  the  depot  all  prepared  to 
remove  him.  I  had  the  revolver  with  me.  I  had 
all  my  papers  nicely  prepared.  I  spoke  to  a  man 
about  a  carriage  to  take  me,  as  I  told  him,  over 
near  the  Congressional  Cemetery.  He  said  that 
he  would  take  me  over  for  $2,  and  seemed  to  be 
a  very  clever  fellow  and  glad  to  get  the  job.  I 
got  to  the  depot  about  9  o'clock  and  waited 
there  until  the  President's  White  House  carnage 
drove  up. 

"  About  twenty-five  minutes  after  9,  the  Presi 
dent  and  his  carriage  and  servants  and  friends 
came  up.  He  got  out  of  his  carriage.  I  stood  in 
the  ladies'  room,  about  the  middle  of  the  room, 
watching  him.  Mrs.  Garfield  got  out  and  they 
walked  through  the  ladies'  room,  and  the  presence 
of  Mrs.  Garfield  deterred  me  from  firing  on  him. 
I  was  all  ready ;  my  mind  was  all  made  up ;  I  had 
all  my  papers  with  me  ;  I  had  all  the  arrange 
ments  made  to  shoot  him  and  to  jump  into  a  car 
riage  and  drive  over  to  the  jail.  Mrs.  Garfield 
looked  so  thin,  and  she  clung  so  tenderly  to  the 
President's  arm,  that  I  did  not  have  the  heart  to 
fire  on  him.  He  passed  right  through  the  ladies' 
reception-room,  through  the  main  entrance,  and 
took  the  cars.  I  waited  a  few  moments.  I  went 
outside  the  depot  and  walked  up  town  toward  the 
Riggs  House,  the  Arlington,  and  the  park.  I  think 
that  I  went  to  the  park  and  sat  there  an  hour  or 
two  thinking  about  it,  and  I  went  to  my  lunch  as 


46 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 


usual,  and  after  my  lunch  I  went  to  the  library  of 
the  Treasury  Department  and  read  the  papers  as 
usual,  and  I  think  I  stayed  there  until  3  o'clock 
on  Saturday,  and  then  I  went  out.  I  do  not 
remember  where  I  went  particularly ;  I  think  I 
went  to  the  Riggs,  the  Arlington,  or  the  park. 
That  was  after  I  left  the  library. 

THE    ASSASSIN    IN    AMBUSH. 

"  I  noticed  in  the  papers,"  Guiteau  continues, 
"  that  he  would  be  back  the  first  of  the  week.  I 
watched  the  papers  very  carefully  to  see  when  he 
would  return,  but  he  did  not  come  back  that 
week,  but  he  did  come  back  on  the  following  Mon 
day.  The  following  Monday  was  a  terribly  hot, 
sultry  day.  I  remember  I  suffered  greatly  from 
the  heat,  but  notwithstanding  that  I  prepared  my 
self  again,  and  I  went  to  the  depot  again  on  Mon 
day  with  my  revolver  and  my  papers,  but  I  did 
not  feel  like  firing  on  him.  I  simply  went  to  the 
depot.  I  sat  in  the  ladies'  waiting-room.  I  got 
there  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  before  the  train  time, 
and  I  waited  and  thought  it  all  over  and  made  up 
my  mind  that  I  would  not  fire  on  him  that  day.  I 
did  not  feel  like  it.  The  train  came  and  he  came, 
and  Mr.  James,  the  Postmaster-General,  was  there, 
and  Mr.  Hunt,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and 
their  lady  friends.  They  all  came  through  the 
ladies'  room  together,  and  the  President's  son  and. 

o 

a   thickset  eentleman  that  came  from  the  White 


House  to  meet  the  President  were  there.     They 


QUITE AU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  *~ 

§ 

went  right  to  the  gate  and  got  the  President,  and 
they  all  walked  together  to  the  President's  car 
riage  and  they  all  got  in  and  drove  off.  I  stood 
at  the  entrance  door  of  the  ladies'  waiting-room, 
and  I  noticed  James  and  Hunt  there  with  their 
families,  and  the  President  and  his  friends  drove 
up  in  his  White  House  carriage,  and  then  James 
and  Hunt  went,  and  then  I  went.  I  got  into  a 
car  and  went  up  toward  the  Riggs  House. 

VIGIL    OF    A    MURDERER. 

"  Well,  I  was  watching  for  the  President  all  that 
week.  I  got  up  one  morning  at  half-past  five, 
thinking  that  I  might  get  the  President  when  he 
was  out  horseback  riding,  but  he  did  not  go  out 
that  morning.  I  sat  there  in  the  park  for  two 
hours  watching  for  him,  with  my  papers  and  revol 
ver,  thinking  that  I  might  get  a  chance  at  him,  but 
he  did  not  go  out  that  morning,  so  I  went  back  to 
my  room,  took  breakfast,  put  up  my  papers  and 
my  revolver  and  let  the  matter  drop  until  night. 
In  the  evening,  after  dinner,  at  five  o'clock,  I  went 
up  to  my  room  and  got  my  revolver  out  and  car 
ried  it  in  my  pocket.  This  was  either  Wednesday 
or  Thursday,  I  do  not  remember  which,  but  I  think 
it  was  Thursday  night.  He  went  out  riding  that 
night.  I  was  in  Lafayette  Park  opposite  the  White 
House  watching  for  him,  and  about  half-past  six 
the  White  House  carriage  drove  up  to  the  White 
House  and  waited  a  few  moments,  and  the  Presi 
dent  and  some  gentleman,  and  a  young  man 


48  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

eighteen  or  twenty  years  old,  who  I  presume 
was  the  President's  son,  got  into  the  carriage. 
The  young  man  sat  with  his  back  to  the  driver  and 
the  President  and  his  gentleman  friend  (whoever 
he  was)  sat  on  the  back  seat.  They  drove  out 
the  entrance  nearest  the  Treasury  Building  and 
passed  right  along  the  east  side  of  Lafayette 
Square  toward  the  Arlington.  They  drove  down 
by  the  Arlington  and  out  on  Vermont  Avenue.  I 
walked  out  of  the  park  pretty  rapidly  and  I  saw 
them  from  the  corner  of  the  park.  I  went  out  on 
the  street  on  the  east  side  of  the  square  and  I 
looked  and  saw  they  were  going  down  Vermont 
Avenue.  I  hung  around  the  park  about  half  an 
hour  or  so,  and  they  did  not  return,  and  it  was 
very  warm,  and  I  concluded  to  let  the  matter  drop 
for  that  night,  so  that,  after  sitting  in  the  park  for 
some  time,  I  went  as  usual  to  my  home  and  went 
to  bed. 

I  went  to  the  Riggs  House  and  took  a  room  in 
the  afternoon  of  Thurs4ay,  and  the  event  men 
tioned  in  this  preceding  talk  happened,  I  am  quite 
certain,  on  Thursday  night;  it  was  either  on 
Wednesday  or  on  Thursday,  I  am  not  positive 
which,  but  my  impression  is  that  it  happened  on 
Thursday  night.  On  Friday  night,  after  I  got  my 
dinner  at  the  Riggs  House,  I  went  up  to  my  room 
and  I  took  out  my  revolver  and  I  put  it  in  my  hip 
pocket,  and  I  had  my  papers  with  me,  and  I 
thought  I  possibly  might  get  a  chance  at  him  Fri- 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  ,„ 

day  night.     I  went  into  Lafayette  Square  and  sat 
there,  opposite  the  White  House. 

IN    THE    SHADOW    OF    DEATH. 

"  I  had  not  been  there  a  minute  before  I  saw 
the    President   walk    out   of    the    White    House. 
'  Now/  I  thought  to  myself,  *  I  have  got  a  splendid 
chance  at  him ;   he   is  all  alone ;  there  isn't  any 
one  around  him.'     He  walked  along  the  east  side 
of  the  square  and  down  H  Street.    I  followed  him. 
He   went   to    Mr.   Elaine's   house    on    Fifteenth 
Street.     He  walked  along,  and  when  he  got  on 
the  sidewalk  opposite  Mr.  Elaine's  house,  he  looked 
up,  as  if  he  did  not  know  the  place  exactly,  and 
then  he  saw  the  correct  number  and  walked  in. 
I  followed  him  along,  and  I  was  about  half-way 
between  H  Street  and  Mr.  Elaine's  house,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  street,  when  he  entered  the 
house.     I  went  into  the  alley  in  the  rear  of  Mr. 
Morton's   house   and   got  out  my  revolver  and 
looked  at  it,  and  wiped  it  off  and  put  it  back  into 
my  pocket.     I  went  over  to  the  H  Street  stoop, 
at  Wormley's,  and  I  waited  there  half  an  hour,  I 
should  say,  for  the  President  to  come  out.     He 
came  out  and  Mr.  Elaine  with  him,  and  I  waited  at 
Wormley's  until  they  passed  by  me  on  the  oppo 
site  side.     They  walked  down  H  Street  and  on 
the  east  side  of  Lafayette  Square  and  through  the 
gate  nearest  the  Treasury  Building  and  into  the 
White    House.      Mr.   Elaine    and    the    President 
seemed  to  be  talking  with  the  greatest  earnestness. 

5 


50  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

Mr.  Blaine  was  on  the  left  side  of  the  President, 
as  they  walked  along  the  street.  Elaine's  right 
arm  was  looped  in  the  President's  left  arm,  and 
they  were  engaged  in  the  most  earnest  conver 
sation  ;  their  heads  were  very  close  together. 
Blaine  was  striking  the  air  every  few  moments 
and  the  President  was  drinking  it  all  in ;  and 
occasionally  the  President  would  strike  out  his 
hand,  thereby  giving  assent  to  what  Mr.  Blaine 
was  saying.  They  seemed  to  be  in  a  very  hila 
rious  state  of  mind,  and  delightful  fellowship,  and 
in  perfect  accord.  This  scene  made  a  striking 
impression  on  me ;  it  confirmed  what  I  had  read 
in  the  papers,  and  what  I  had  felt  for  a  long  time, 
to  wit,  that  the  President  was  entirely  under  Mr. 
Blaine's  influence,  and  that  they  were  in  perfect 
accord.  I  may  have  remained  in  the  park  per 
haps  half  or  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  and  then 
I  went  down  to  my  room  at  the  Riggs  House.  I 
took  a  towel-bath  in  my  room,  and  went  to  bed 
and  went  to  sleep.  I  woke  up  about  4  o'clock 
Saturday  morning,  and  felt  well  in  mind  and  body. 
My  mind  was  perfectly  clear  in  regard  to  removing 
the  President ;  I  had  not  the  slightest  doubt  about 
my  duty  to  the  Lord  and  to  the  American  people 
in  trying  to  remove  the  President,  and  I  want  to 
say  here,  as  emphatically  as  words  can  make  it, 
that  from  the  moment  when  I  fully  decided  to  re 
move  the  President,  I  have  never  had  the  slightest 
shadow  on  my  mind ;  my  purpose  has  been  just 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  ci 

as  clear  and  just  as  determined  as  anything  could 
be.  I  believed  that  I  was  acting  under  a  special 
Divine  authority  to  remove  him,  and  this  Divine 
pressure  was  upon  me  from  the  time  when  I  fully 
resolved  to  remove  him  until  I  actually  shot  him. 
It  was  only  by  nerving  myself  to  the  utmost  that 
I  did  it  at  all,  and  I  never  had  the  slightest  doubt 
as  to  the  Divine  inspiration  of  the  act,  and  that  it 
was  for  the  best  interest  of  the  American  people. 

NEARING   THE    END. 

"  Having  heard  on  Friday  from  the  papers,  and 
also  by  my  inquiries  of  the  doorkeeper  at  the  White 
House,  Friday  evening,  that  the  President  was  going 
to  Long  Branch  Saturday  morning,  I  resolved  to 
remove  him  at  the  depot.  I  took  my  breakfast  at 
the  Rio^s  House  about  8  o'clock.  I  ate  well  and 

oo 

felt  well  in  body  and  mind.  I  went  into  Lafayette 
Square  and  sat  there  some  little  time  after  break 
fast,  waiting  for  9  o'clock  to  come,  and  then  I  went 
to  the  depot,  and  I  got  there  about  ten  minutes 
after  9.  I  rode  there  from  the  park  in  a  '  bob- 
tailed  car.'  I  left  the  car,  walked  up  to  a  boot 
black,  got  my  boots  blacked,  and  inquired  for  a 
man  named  John  Taylor,  whom,  two  weeks  before, 
I  had  spoken  to  about  taking  me  out  toward  the 
Congressional  Cemetery.  They  told  me  that 
Taylor's  carriage  was  not  there,  and  there  were 
three  or  four  hackmen  there  who  were  very 
anxious  to  serve  me,  and  finally  I  noticed  a  colored 
man,  and  I  said  to  him,  « What  will  you  take  me 


c  2  A  UTOBIO  GRAPH  Y  OF 

out  to  the  Congressional  Cemetery  for?'  He 
says,  'Well,  I  will  take  you  out  there  for  $2.'  'All 
right/  said  I,  *  if  I  want  to  use  you  I  will  let  you 
know.'  At  that  moment  these  other  hackmen 
were  pressing  me  to  get  my  business,  and  I  said 
to  them,  *  Keep  quiet ;  you  are  too  fast  on  this,' 
and  I  told  this  colored  man,  privately,  that  if  I 
wanted  his  services  I  would  let  him  know  in  a  few 
minutes.  I  then  went  into  the  depot  and  took  my 
private  papers  which  I  intended  for  the  press 
(including  a  revised  edition  of  my  book,  'The 
Truth,  a  companion  to  the  Bible'),  and  stepped  up 
to  the  news-stand  and  asked  the  young  man  in 
charge  if  I  could  leave  those  papers  with  him  a 
few  moments,  and  he  said,  'Certainly;'  and  he 
took  them  and  placed  them  up  against  the  wall 
on  top  of  some  other  papers.  This  was  about 
twenty  minutes  after  9,  and  I  went  into  the  ladies' 
waiting-room  and  I  looked  around,  saw  there  were 
quite  a  good  many  people  there  in  the  depot  and 
carriages  outside,  but  I  did  not  see  the  Presi 
dent's  carriage. 

"  I  examined  my  revolver  to  see  that  it  was  all 
right,  and  took  off  the  paper  that  I  had  wrapped 
around  it  to  keep  the  moisture  off.  I  waited  five 
or  six  minutes  longer,  sat  down  on  a  seat  in  the 
ladies'  room,  and  very  soon  the  President  drove 
up.  He  was  in  company  with  a  gentleman  who, 
I  understood,  was  Mr.  Elaine,  and  I  am  satisfied 
that  he  was  Mr.  Elaine,  although  I  did  not  recog- 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  -  ,, 

nize  him.  This  gentleman  looked  very  old,  and 
he  had  a  peculiar  kind  of  headgear  on,  that  I  did 
not  recognize  as  that  of  Mr.  Elaine.  I  am  satis 
fied  that  it  was  Mr.  Elaine,  now  that  my  attention 
has  been  specially  called  to  it,  because  it  was  the 
same  gentleman  that  I  saw  with  the  President  the 
night  before,  and  I  know  positively  that  that  gen 
tleman  was  Mr.  Elaine.  The  President  and  this 
gentleman  drove  up  in  a  plain  single-seated  car 
riage  with  one  horse  ;  this  gentleman,  I  think,  was 
driving.  It  was  a  single  carriage — a  single-seated 
top  buggy.  The  President  seemed  to  be  in  very 
earnest  and  private  conversation  with  this  gentle 
man,  who  evidently  was  Mr.  Elaine,  although  at 
the  time  I  did  not  recognize  him  as  Mr.  Elaine. 

o 

They  sat  in  the  carriage  I  should  say  some  two 
minutes ;  they  had  not  completed  their  conversa- 
when  they  reached  the  depot,  and  during  the  inter 
view  of  two  minutes  they  finished  their  conversa 
tion.  During  this  time  they  were  engaged  in  very 
earnest  and  private  conversation,  as  I  have  said. 
"  The  President  got  out  on  the  pavement  side 
and  Mr.  Elaine  on  the  other  side.  They  entered 
the  ladies'  room  ;  I  stood  there  watching  the  Presi 
dent  and  they  passed  by  me.  Before  they  reached 
the  depot,  I  had  been  promenading  up  and  down 
the  ladies'  room,  between  the  ticket-office  door  and 
the  news-stand  door,  a  space  of  some  ten  or  twelve 
feet.  I  walked  up  and  down  there  I  should  say 
two  or  three  times,  working  myself  up,  as  I  knew 

5* 


54 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 


the  hour  was  at  hand.  The  President  and  Mr. 
Blaine  came  into  the  ladies'  room  and  walked 
right  by  me  ;  they  did  not  notice  me  as  there  were 
quite  a  number  of  ladies  and  children  in  the  room. 

HOW    THE    PRESIDENT    FELL. 

"  There  was  quite  a  large  crowd  of  ticket  pur 
chasers  at  the  gentlemen's  ticket-office  in  the  ad 
joining  room  ;  the  depot  seemed  to  be  quite  full 
of  people.  There  was  quite  a  crowd  and  commo 
tion  around,  and  the  President  was  in  the  act  of 
passing  from  the  ladies'  room  to  the  main  entrance 
through  the  door.  I  should  say  he  was  about  four 
or  five  feet  from  the  door  nearest  the  ticket-office, 
in  the  act  of  passing  through  the  door  to  get 
through  the  depot  to  the  cars.  He  was  about 
three  or  four  feet  from  the  door.  I  stood  five  or 
six  feet  behind  him,  right  in  the  middle  of  the 
room,  and,  as  he  was  in  the  act  of  walking  away 
from  me,  I  pulled  out  the  revolver  and  fired.  He 
straightened  up  and  threw  his  head  back  and 
seemed  to  be  perfectly  bewildered.  He  did  not 
seem  to  know  what  struck  him.  I  looked  at  him  ; 
he  did  not  drop ;  I  thereupon  pulled  again.  He 
dropped  his  head,  seemed  to  reel,  and  fell  over.  I 
do  not  know  where  the  first  shot  hit ;  I  aimed  at 
the  hollow  of  his  back  ;  I  did  not  aim  for  any  par 
ticular  place,  but  I  knew  if  I  got  those  two  bullets 
in  his  back  he  would  certainly  go.  I  was  in  a 
diagonal  direction  from  the  President,  to  the  north 
west,  and  supposed  both  shots  struck. 


GLITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  ~* 

THE   ARREST. 

"  I  was  in  the  act  of  putting  my  revolver  back 
into  my  pocket  when  the  depot  policemen  seized 
me  and  said,  'You  shot  the  President  of  the 
United  States.'  He  was  terribly  excited ;  he 
hardly  knew  his  head  from  his  feet,  and  I  said, 
'  Keep  q-iiet,  my  friend  ;  keep  quiet,  my  friend.  I 
want  to  go  to  jail.'  A  moment  after  the  police 
man  seized  me  by  the  left  arm ;  clinched  me  with 
terrible  force.  Another  gentleman — an  older 
man,  I  should  say,  and  less  robust — seized  me  by 
the  riorht  arm.  At  this  moment  the  ticket-aofent 

o  o 

and  a  great  crowd  of  people  rushed  around  me, 
and  the  ticket-agent  said,  *  That's  him  ;  that's  him  ;' 
and  he  pushed  out  his  arm  to  seize  me  around  the 
neck,  and  I  says,  '  Keep  quiet,  my  friends  ;  I  want 
to  go  to  jail;'  and  the  officers,  one  on  each  side  of 
me,  rushed  me  right  off  to  the  Police  Headquar 
ters,  and  the  officer  who  first  seized  me  by  the 
hand  says,  'This  man  has  just  shot  the  President 
of  the  United  States,'  and  he  was  terribly  excited. 
And  I  said,  '  Keep  quiet,  my  friends ;  keep  quiet ; 
I  have  got  some  papers  which  will  explain  the 
whole  matter.' 

"  They  let  go  of  me  and  they  held  my  hands  up 
— one  policeman  on  one  side  and  one  on  the  other 
— and  they  went  through  me,  took  away  my 
revolver  and  what  little  change  I  had,  my  comb 
and  my  toothpick,  all  my  papers,  and  I  gave  them 
my  letter  to  the  White  House ;  told  them  that  I 


c5  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

wished  they  would  send  that  letter  to  the  White 
House  at  once,  and  the  officer'  began  to  read  my 
letter  to  the  White  House,  and  in  this  envelope 
containing  my  letter  to  the  White  House  was  my 
speech,  '  Garfield  against  Hancock.'  He  glanced 
his  eye  over  the  letter  and  I  was  telling  him  about 
sending  it  at  once  to  the  White  House  to  explain 
the  matter  and  he  said,  'We  will  put  you  into  the 
White  House !'  So  I  said  nothing  after  that. 
They  took  me  around  a  little  dark  place  and  put 
me  into  a  cell ;  they  locked  the  door  and  went  off, 
and  I  did  not  see  any  one  for  ten  minutes,  and 
then  one  or  two  parties  came  and  took  a  look  at 
me  ;  they  were  policemen  and  detectives  and  said, 
'  I  don't  know  him  ;  I  don't  know  that  man  ;  never 
saw  him  before.' 

"  I  waited  a  few  moments  longer  and  a  gentle 
man  came — a  detective,  who  proved  to  be  Mr. 
McElfresh — and  he  was  very  polite  and  attentive. 
I  told  him  in  brief  who  I  was  and  why  I  did  it ;  that 
I  had  some  papers  at  the  news-stand ;  that  I  wished 
him  to  get  those  papers  and  take  them  up  to 
Byron  Andrews  and  his  co-journalists ;  that  the 
papers  would  explain  all  about  the  matter.  I  also 
told  him  that  I  wished  to  go  to  the  jail  at  once, 
and  he  came  in  and  put  the  handcuffs  on  to  me. 
There  were  five  or  six  policemen  and  detectives 
with  him  when  he  came  in  to  see  me,  and  he  went 
away  and  came  back  in  a  few  minutes  and  said 
that  they  had  decided  to  take  me  right  to  jail,  and 


THE  ASSASSIN   IN  HIS  CELL. 


GUITEAU  THE  ASSASSIN.  ~Q 

I  said,  '  That  is  just  what  I  want.'  And  he  and 
his  brother  officers  took  me  right  out  into  the  room 
and  down  the  stairs  and  into  a  carriage,  and  he 

o     ' 

and  three  other  policemen  got  in  and  drove  me 
rapidly  to  the  jail.  I  met  Mr.  Russ,  the  deputy 
warden.  McElfresh  told  him  that  I  had  shot  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  he  assigned 

O 

me  to  cell  No.  2,  and  I  have  been  there  ever  since, 
except  when  I  have  been  to  the  warden's  room  to 
be  interviewed  by  correspondents,  or  to  consult 
with  counsel." 

PURCHASE  OF  THE  REVOLVER. 

Guiteau  bought  the  revolver  before  the  Presi 
dent  went  to  Long  Branch:  "  I  called  at  O'Meara's, 
corner  of  Fifteenth  and  F  streets,  opposite  the 
Treasury,  about  two  or  three  weeks  before  the 
removal.  I  stepped  up  to  the  show-case  and  said, 
'Let  me  look  at  that/  I  saw  it  was  a  large  bore, 
and  he  pulled  it  out.  I  saw  it  marked  *  British 
Bull  Dog,'  and  saw  that  it  was  an  unusual  revolver, 
and  he  said,  '  That  will  kill  a  horse/  or  something 
to  that  effect.  There  were  two  just  alike,  except 
that  one  had  an  ivory  handle  for  $10,  and  the 
other  a  plain  wooden  handle  for  $9 ;  I  got  the 
best  one  for  $10.  I  was  very  timid  in  holding  it. 
I  knew  nothing  about  weapons  at  all;  I  looked  at 
it  in  an  unsophisticated  way,  snapped  it.  And  I 
said,  '  that  will  make  a  good  noise/  and  he  said, 
*  oh,  yes,  that  will-  kill  a  horse  /  he  said,  '  I  never 
want  a  bullet  like  that  in  me/  I  said,  '  perhaps  I 


6O  A  UTOJ5IO  GRA  PH  Y  OF 

may  get  that  some  of  these  days.'  Three  or  four 
days  afterwards,  I  stepped  in  there  and  selected 
the  revolver  with  the  ivory  handle  and  got  a  box 
of  cartridges  and  a  little  penknife,  and  he  said  he 
would  give  me  the  entire  purchase  for  $10. 

"  I  did  not  have  the  money  when  I  first  went  in ; 
I  got  it  from  a  gentleman  in  the  interim.  He 
loaded  the  revolver  and  said,  '  Put  that  right  into 
your  pocket.'  Said  I,  '  Is  there  any  law  here 
against  carrying  a  revolver?'  He  said,  'Yes, 
there  is,  but  they  don't  enforce  it  except  against 
drunken  people.'  'Where  can  I  shoot  this?'  says 
I.  He  says,  'Well,  you  can  go  down  to  the  foot 
of  Seventeenth  Street  and  fire  it  off  into  the  river.' 
In  the  course  of  two  or  three  clays  (I  remember  it 
was  the  Saturday  night  after  I  bought  it)  I  went 
clown  about  7  o'clock  in  the  evening  and  I 
shot  it  off  twice.  That  is  I  shot  off  ten  cartridges. 
At  the  first  shot  I  was  about  ten  feet  from  a  sap 
ling  three  inches  in  diameter,  that  was  stuck  into 
the  mud,  and  I  pulled  and  struck  the  sapling  and 
it  trembled  like  a  leaf  and  it  made  a  fearful  hol 
low;  I  was  terribly  excited  at  the  noise  and  power 
of  the  weapon  ;  thought  I,  '  that  is  a  terrible  weap 
on;  it  made  a  hole  like  a  little  cannon  ;  it  startled 
me.  I  fired  ten  shots,  and  they  went  off  with  tre 
mendous  effect  every  time;  it  made  a  terrific 
noise.  One  or  two  men  came  around,  hearing 
the  reports,  and  on  the  way  back  I  noticed  a  col 
ored  woman  and  several  other  people.  '  Did  you 


GUITEAU  THE  ASSASSIN. 


61 


hear  that  noise  ?'    They  said.     '  Oh,  yes  ;  it  made 
a  terrible  noise.' 

"I  went  down  again  the  Saturday  morning  that 
I  intended  to  remove  the  President,  when  he  went 
to  Long  Branch  and  Mrs.  Garfield  deterred  me. 
I  got  up  about  half-past  4  that  morning  and  I 
went  right  down  to  the  same  place.  I  got  down 
there  about  5  o'clock.  It  was  a  bright,  splendid 
morning  I  remember,  and  I  shot  it  off  twice,  using 
ten  cartridges.  It  made  a  terrible  noise,  as  usual. 
Those  are  the  only  times  that  I  have  practiced 
with  a  revolver.  I  then  took  it  to  the  house  and 
wiped  it  nicely  and  took  the  cartridges  and  rub 
bed  them  off,  and  I  loaded  it  and  put  it  into  my 
drawer  in  my  room,  and  it  was  in  that  condition 
when  I  used  it  on  the  President.  I  took  great 
pains  ;  put  it  in  my  coat  and  wrapped  it  up  nicely, 
so  that  no  moisture  could  get  to  the  powder,  in 
order  that  it  would  be  in  a  nice  condition  when  I 
wanted  to  use  it.  I  took  it  out  several  times  and 
carried  it  in  my  hip  pocket ;  but  it  was  not  fired  off 
after  that  until  I  used  it  on  the  President  on  Satur 
day  morning,  July  2. 

VISITS    TO    THE    WHITE    HOUSE. 

"  During  the  time  I  was  pressing  my  applica 
tion  for  the  Paris  consulship  I  called  at  the  White 
House  several  times.  I  handed  my  card  to  the  door 
keeper  and  he  would  take  it  in  to  the  President. 
The  reply  came  back  on  several  occasions — '  Mr. 
Guiteau,  the  President  says  that  it  will  be  impossi- 
6 


62  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

ble  for  him  to  see  you  to-day.'  I  understood  by 
the  President's  statement  that  he  could  not  see 
me  to-day — and  that  was  the  statement  that  he 
sent  me  through  his  doorkeeper  several  times — 
because  he  was  trying  gracefully  to  get  rid  of 
Walker,  the  present  Consul.  In  one  of  my  notes 
to  the  President  I  asked  him  directly,  '  Can  I  have 
the  Paris  consulship  ?'  and  the  reply,  as  usual, 
came  back,  '  Mr.  Guiteau,  the  President  is  very 
busy  and  cannot  see  you  to-day.' 

"  These  interviews  occurred  several  days  apart 
— sometimes  a  week  apart ;  they  all  occurred 
during  the  time  that  I  was  pressing  my  appli 
cation  for  the  Paris  consulship.  The  case  was 
pending  at  the  time  I  shot  the  President,  and,  as  I 
before  stated  I  confidently  expected  a  favorable 
answer  when  they  had  got  rid  of  Mr.  Walker.  I 
understood,  by  the  President's  statement  that 
he  could  not  see  me,  that  he  was  trying  in 
some  way  to  get  rid  of  Walker  gracefully, 
and  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  he  intended  that 
I  should  have  it.  My  getting  or  not  getting 
the  Paris  consulship  had  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  my  shooting  the  President ;  I  shot  him  purely 
as  a  political  necessity,  under  Divine  pressure  ; 
and  it  was  only  by  nerving  myself  to  the  utmost 
that  I  shot  him  any  way.  If  he  should  recover 
and  I  should  meet  him  again  I  would  not  shoot 
him  ;  and  now  I  leave  the  result  with  the  Almighty. 
In  case  the  President  had  said  that  I  could  not 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  6~ 

have  the  Paris  consulship,  I  intended  to  go  to  New 
York  or  Chicago,  and  open  a  law  office,  and  let 
politics  go. 

LEGAL    VIEW    OF    THE    ASSASSINATION. 

"  I  shot  the  President  without  malice  or  murder 
ous  intent.  I  deny  any  legal  liability  in  this  case. 
In  order  to  constitute  the  crime  of  murder  two 
elements  must  co-exist.  First,  an  actual  homi 
cide  ;  second,  malice — malice  in  law  or  malice  in 
fact.  The  law  presumes  malice  from  the  fact  of 
the  homicide  ;  the  degree  of  malice  depends  upon 
the  condition  of  the  man's  mind  at  the  time  of  the 
homicide.  If  two  men  quarrel  and  one  shoots 
the  other  in  heat  or  passion,  the  law  says  that  is 
manslaughter.  The  remoteness  of  the  shooting 
from  the  moment  of  the  conception  fastens  the 
degree  of  the  malice.  The  further  you  go  from 
the  conception  to  the  shooting  the  greater  the 
malice,  because  the  law  says  that  in  shooting  a 
man  a  few  hours  or  a  few  days  after  the  concep 
tion,  the  mind  has  a  chance  to  cool,  and,  therefore, 
the  act  is  deliberate.  Malice  in  fact  depends  upon 
the  circumstances  attending  the  homicide.  Malice 
in  law  is  liquidated  in  this  case  by  the  facts  and 
circumstances,  as  set  forth  in  these  pages,  attend 
ing  the  removal  of  the  President.  I  had  none  but 
the  best  of  feelings,  personally,  towrard  the  Presi 
dent.  I  always  thought  of  him  and  spoke  of  him 
as  General  Garfield. 

"  I  never  had  the  slightest  idea  of  removing  Mn 


64 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 


Elaine  or  any  member  of  the  Administration.  My 
only  object  was  to  remove  Mr.  Garfield  in  his 
official  capacity  as  President  of  the  United  States, 
to  unite  the  Republican  party,  and  save  the  Re 
public  from  going  into  the  control  of  the  rebels 
and  democrats.  This  was  the  sole  idea  that  in 
duced  me  to  remove  the  President.  I  appreciate 
all  the  religion  and  sentiment  and  honor  connected 
with  the  removal ;  no  one  can  surpass  me  in  this, 
but  I  put  away  all  sentiment  and  did  my  duty  to 
God  and  to  the  American  people." 

INTERVIEW  WITH    MR.  CONKLING. 

The  fourth  chapter  in  Guiteau's  autobiography 
contains  little  that  is  of  interest.     He  gives  his 

o 

impressions  of  men  in  public  life  whom  he  casually 
met ;  whom  he  bored  for  office  or  money.  It  is  a 
record  of  intense  egotism.  His  speech,  "  Garfield 
against  Hancock,"  he  used  everywhere  as  his  letter 
of  introduction.  If  a  public  man  failed  to  recog 
nize  him  out  came  the  speech.  He  tells  how  he 
was  snubbed  by  Mr.  Conkling,  whom  he  styles 
"  My  Lord  Roscoe,"  and  who  nearly  always  seemed 
to  him  to  be  on  his  "  high  horse."  Mr.  Jewell  was 
always  affable  and  appeared  to  like  him.  Mr. 
Elaine  he  met  two  or  three  times  at  the  State  De 
partment.  He  describes  one  interview  in  the  first 
week  of  March.  "  I  gave  Mr.  Elaine  my  speech, 
headed  '  Garfield  against  Hancock/  and  he  im 
mediately  recognized  me  and  brightened  up  and 
was  very  clever  to  me.  I  met  him  in  the  elevator 


GUITEAUy   THE  ASSASSIN.  §* 

one  day  about  that  time— probably  about  a  week 
later — and  he  was  very  cordial,  and  said  he  re 
membered  me,  and  seemed  to  be  very  glad  to  see 
me.  My  standing  with  Mr.  Elaine  ran  along  in 
this  free  and  familiar  way  until  he  told  me  one 
day  that  he  did  not  think  the  President  would  re 
move  Mr.  Walker.  Since  that  I  have  not  seen 
him."  Mr.  Conkling  he  saw  one  day  in  the  Vice- 
President's  room  at  the  Capitol.  The  ex-Senator 
was  in  conversation  with  a  gentleman.  "  I  sat 
within  a  few  feet  of  him,"  says  Guiteau,  "on  the 
sofa.  I  eyed  him  and  he  eyed  me,  and  when  he 
got  through  with  his  friend  I  stepped  up  to  him 
and  said  '  Good  morning,  Senator,'  and  he  said 
1  good  morning.'  I  said,  '  I  hope  to  get  an  appoint 
ment,  Senator,  and  I  hope  when  the  matter  comes 
up  you  will  remember  me,'  and  he  simply  said, 
'  perfectly,'  and  I  bowed,  and  he  bowed,  and  we 
parted." 

LOOKING    FOR    A    WIFE. 

In  bringing  his  autobiography  to  an  end  he  says : 
"  And  now  I  speak  of  two  matters  strictly  personal. 
First,  I  am  looking  for  a  wife  and  see  no  objection 
to  mentioning  it  here.  I  want  an  elegant  Chris 
tian  lady  of  wealth,  under  thirty,  belonging  to  a 
first-class  family.  Any  such  lady  can  address  me 
in  the  utmost  confidence.  My  mother  died  when 
I  was  only  seven,  and  I  have  always  felt  it  a  great 
privation  to  have  no  mother.  If  my  mother  had 
lived  I  never  should  have  got  into  the  Oneida 


56  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 

Community,  and  my  life,  no  doubt,  would  have 
been  happier  every  way.  Nearly  three  years  after 
I  left  the  Community  I  was  unfortunately  married. 
At  last  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  sever  the 
bonds,  and  I  was  divorced  in  1874.  I  am  fond  of 
female  society,  and  I  judge  the  ladies  are  of  me, 
and  I  should  be  delighted  to  find  my  mate." 

PRESIDENTIAL   ASPIRATIONS. 

"The  second"  subject  in  which  he  desires  to 
take  the  public  into  his  confidence  refers  to  the 
Presidency.  "  For  twenty  years,"  he  writes,  "  I 
have  had  an  idea  that  I  should  be  President.  I 
had  the  idea  when  I  lived  in  the  Oneida  Com 
munity,  and  it  has  never  left  me.  When  I  left 
Boston  for  New  York,  in  June,  1880,  I  remember 
distinctly  I  felt  that  I  was  on  my  way  to  the  White 
House.  I  had  this  feeling  all  through  the  canvass 
last  fall  in  New  York,  although  I  mentioned  it  to 
only  two  persons.  My  idea  is  that  I  shall  be 
nominated  and  elected  as  Lincoln  and  Garfield 
were — that  is,  by  the  act  of  God.  If  I  were  Presi 
dent,  I  should  seek  to  give  the  nation  a  first-class 
administration  in  every  respect;  I  want  nothing 
sectional  or  crooked  around  me.  My  object  would 
be  to  unify  the  entire  American  people,  and  make 
them  happy,  prosperous  and  God-fearing," 


MARRIED  LIFE 


OF 


CHARLES  JULIUS  GUITEAU, 

BY  HIS  FORMER  WIFE, 

MRS.  ANNIE  J.  DUNMIRE. 


STENOGRAPHICALLY    REPORTED. 


(67) 


Philadelphia,  Dec.  29,  1881. 
Messrs.  Hubbard  Bros., 

Philadelphia,  Penna.: 

Gentlemen  : — /  have  given  you  as  fully  as  possi 
ble,  and  exclusively  for  publication  in  your  forth 
coming  book  on  the  "  Life  and  Trial  of  Charles 
J.  Guiteau"  all  the  important  and  interesting 
particulars  concerning  him,  as  I  knew  him,  while 
his  wife. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

MRS.  THEODORE  DUNMIRE. 


(68) 


MARRIED   LIFE    OF   GUITEAU: 
BY  MRS.  ANNIE   J.  DUNMIRE. 


PREFATORY. 

MRS.  ANNIE  J.  DUNMIRE,  the  divorced  wife  of 
Guiteau,  now  residing  in  Leadville,  Colorado, 
has  given  to  the  publishers  some  interesting  infor 
mation,  which,  in  a  striking  manner,  portrays  the 
moral  obliquity  of  her  quondam  husband. 

In  following  her  narrative  and  the  testimony 
introduced  at  the  trial  concerning  the  nefarious 
life  of  this  theological  vagabond  and  modern  vam 
pire,  one  is  forcibly  reminded  of  the  character  of 
that  most  illustrious  imp  of  depravity  Tiddlebat 
Titmouse,  M.  P.  Titmouse  has  justly  been  con 
sidered  one  of  the  most  repulsive  and  nauseating 
characters  in  fiction,  but  the  reality  which  the 
santimonious  Guiteau  presents,  is  infinitely  more 
despicable  and  loathsome  than  the  contemptible 
effigy  created  by  the  brilliant  imagination  of 
Warren.  His  defense  of  inspiration  is  undoubt 
edly  an  artifice,  and  his  pretensions  to  patriotism, 
and  claim  to  be  ranked  with  a  Brutus  and  Char 
lotte  Corday,  equally  absurd  in  the  light  of  his 
selfish  career.  If  such  an  event  could,  in  any  man 
ner,  advance  his  personal  interests,  he  would  be 

(69) 


MARRIED  LIFE   OF 


perfectly  content  to  see  the  Republic  obliterated 
from  existence.  His  ambition  was  to  wriggle  into 
notoriety,  "to  strike  a  blow  in  the  world  that  would 
resound  through  the  centuries,"  whether  for  good 
or  bad,  whether  by  a  gigantic  achievement  of 
genius,  or  the  surreptitious  assault  of  an  assassin 
against  purity  and  honor,  he  was  supremely  in 
different.  It  was  the  old  Satanic  ambition:  Better 
to  reign  in  hell  than  serve  in  heaven. 


MRS.  DUNMIRE'S  STATEMENT. 
In  the  spring  of  1868,  I  was  employed  as  libra 
rian  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  in 
Chicago,  and  I  there  be 
came  acquainted  with  Gui- 
teau.  He  was  then  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Association,  and 
had  been  for  a  short  time 
previous  to  my  connection 
with  it.  He  took  an  active 
part  in  the  work,  often 
conducting  the  meetings, 
and  frequented  the  library 
rooms  a  great  deal.  He  represented  himself  as 
practicing  law,  and  I  think  he  was  then  in  the 
office  of  Reynolds  &  Phelps.  I  presume  he  was 
studying  law  and  getting  what  business  he  could 
— just  commencing  business.  He  pretended  to 


GUITEAU   IN  JULY    1869. 


GUITEAL\   THE  ASSASSIN. 


feel  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  religious  matters, 
and  repeatedly  referred  to  his  having  been  a 
member  of  Mr.  Beecher's  Church,  in  Brooklyn. 
The  gentlemen  in  the  Association  seemed  to 
think  that  he  was  a  very  exemplary  young  man, 
so  far  as  his  conduct  and  work  among  them  was 
concerned. 

My  first  impression  of  him  was  that  he  was 
rather  peculiar  in  his  manners  and  dress,  but 
nothing  very  remarkable.  Of  course,  one  some 
times  notices  little  peculiarities  in  a  person  that 
another  would  not  observe. 

MARRIAGE. 

We  were  married  in  Chicago  on  the  3d  of 
July,  1869,  by  the  Rev. 
William  Alvin  Bartlett, 
who  was  then  pastor  of 
the  First  Congregational 
Church  of  that  city.  We 
lived  there  until  the  time 
of  the  great  fire,  in  Octo 
ber,  1871.  During  that 
period  he  practiced  law, 
but  the  principal  part  of 
the  law  business  that  he 
attended  to  was  collect 
ing  old  notes  and  debts.  He  seemed  to  have 
more  business  of  that  nature  than  any  other.  He 
had  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  with  almost  every 
party  with  whom  he  had  any  business  transactions, 


WIFE  OF  GUITEAU,  IN  1869. 


^  2  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

in  regard  to   making  proper  returns   respecting 
such  bills  as  he  had  collected. 

METHODS    AS    A    COLLECTOR. 

When  he  had  a  bill  for  collection  he  would  work 
with  a  great  deal  of  energy  for  a  time,  and  suc- 
•ceed  in  obtaining  a  part  of  it ;  and  then  he  would 
state  to  the  creditor  that  he  had  had  a  great  deal 
of  trouble  in  collecting  the  first  instalment  on 
their  claim,  and  he  would  keep  the  amount  so 
collected  as  payment  for  his  services,  promising 
to  pay  to  them  their  share  if  he  should  succeed  in 
obtaining  the  remainder,  and  if  not  (as  in  many 
cases  he  never  did)  that  is  the  way  the  matter  was 
left — he  never  paid  over  any  more,  thereby  natu 
rally  causing  these  men  to  feel  very  hard  toward 
him,  they  often  threatened  him  with  exposure, 
and  pursued  him  and  gave  him  trouble.  He  pro 
bably  thought  I  knew  very  little  about  these  mat 
ters,  but  I  learned  the  state  of  affairs  from  people 
who  would  call  to  see  him  where  we  were  board 
ing,  and  in  an  indirect  way  at  different  times.  He 
would  often  tell  me,  in  fact,  of  different  sums  of 
money  that  he  had  succeeded  in  collecting,  and 
he  seemed  to  take  unbounded  delight  in  talk 
ing  about  how  he  would  arrange  to  keep  these 
amounts,  and  evidently  looked  upon  it  as  quite  a 
piece  of  smartness  to  be  able  to  do  so  without 
getting  into  any  difficulty  about  it.  I  repeatedly 
told  him  that  he  knew  that  way  of  doing  business 
was  dishonest  and  not  the  right  conduct,  and  that 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  *  * 

he  would  suddenly  cause  a  great  deal  of  trouble. 
His  reply  invariably  was,  that  the  world  owed  him 
a  living,  and  that  he  intended  to  get  it  in  one  way 
or  another. 

AN    UNCLEAN    LIFE. 

I  lived  in  continual  anxiety  and  suspense  of 
mind  on  account  of  this  mode  of  living — his  cheat 
ing  and  dishonest  transactions.  I  was  constantly 
expecting  that  something  would  happen  to  him, 
during  that  time,  because  I  knew  how  people  felt 
toward  him,  and  if  he  was  late  at  meal-time  or 
was  out  unusually  late  in  the  evening,  I  was  in 
constant  fear  that  something  had  happened  to  him. 
I  became  so  sure  of  it  that  the  least  unexpected 
noise  in  the  house  or  hall,  would  startle  me,  and  I 
would  think  that  perhaps  he  had  been  attacked  or 
killed  or  injured  in  some  way.  I  lived  in  a  per 
petual  dread  and  expectancy  of  something  fear 
ful  occurring  to  him  on  that  account. 

GUITEAU'S    CUNNING. 

I  might  mention  a  few  instances  of  his  remarka 
ble  shrewdness,  or  cunning,  if  you  can  call  it  that. 
One  incident  that  transpired  while  we  were  living 
in  New  York  I  remember  very  well,  which  shows 
how  very  quick  he  was  in  trying  to  deceive  or  in 
deception.  He  had  a  hunting-case  watch  which 
was  not  worth  more  than  five  dollars.  It  was  re 
ferred  to  by  Mr.  Shaw  in  his  testimony  at  the 
trial.  It  was  what  was  called  an  oroide  watch  and 
could  be  brightened  up  so  that  it  would  greatly  re- 

7 


74 


MARRIED  LIFE   OF 


semble  £"old,  and  one  o^lancinof  at  it  mio'ht  think  it 

o  o  o  o 

very  valuable.  He  was  in  great  need  of  money 
and  an  idea  occurred  to  him  that  he  would  try  to 
get  some  money  on  this  watch.  He  waited  until 
evening  and  then  went  to  the  store  of  a  pawn 
broker,  kept  by  a  Jew,  somewhere  down  town. 
He  handed  the  man  his  card,  and  told  him  that  he 
was  short  of  money,  and  that  he  wished  to  get 
about  twenty-five  dollars  advanced  on  the  watch, 
which  he  produced.  The  man  took  it  and  turned  to 
get  the  money  from  his  safe  or  drawer,  and  as  he 
turned  Guiteau  picked  up  his  card  and  slipped  it 
into  his  pocket,  and  he  took  the  twenty-five  dol 
lars  and  came  away.  He  returned  home  and 
showed  me  the  money.  He  clapped  his  hands 
and  walked  up  and  down  the  room  and  just 
laughed  to  think  how  he  had  cheated  "  that  old 
Jew."  He  was  a  perfect  stranger  to  the  pawn 
broker,  and  of  course  in  a  large  city  like  New 
York,  it  would  perhaps  be  impossible  to  find  him 
again.  I  told  him  that  in  all  probability  the  man 
would  find  him,  because  he  had  given  him  his  card  ; 
and  he  said,  "  Oh,  no  ;  there  is  no  danger  of  that, 
for  as  he  turned  his  back  to  get  the  money,  I 
slipped  the  card  off  the  counter,  so  that  the 
man  would  lose  the  clue  as  to  who  I  am."  He 
regarded  that  as  so  much  clear  gain. 

DISHONEST    DEALING. 

During  all  the  time  we  were  living  in  Chicago, 
he  kept  up  his  dishonest  practices,  cheating-  every- 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  j~ 

body  that  he  came  in  contact  with,  great  or  small, 
in  any  way  he  possibly  could.  I  presume  no  one 
ever  had  any  dealings  with  him  where  money  was 
involved,  that  did  not  get  the  worst  of  the  trans 
action. 

We  were  both  members  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church  of  Chicago,  of  which  Dr.  Evarts  was  pas 
tor;  we  were  baptized  and  received  into  full 
membership,  and  part  of  the  time  Guiteau  taught 
in  the  Sabbath-School,  and  often  conducted,  or 
assisted  in  conducting,  the  prayer-meetings  held 
during  the  week.  He  attended  the  services  rema- 

o  o 

larly,  and  to  all  outward  appearances,  took  great 
interest  in  the  church.  And  yet  all  the  while  it 
was  his  constant  study  to  see  how  successfully  he 
could  carry  on  his  dishonest  operations.  He 
seemed  to  delight  in  such  conduct,  and  succeeded 
in  almost  every  instance,  and,  notwithstanding 
this,  I  do  not  know  of  his  ever  getting  into  any 
serious  difficulty  as  a  result  of  his  roguery,  during 
our  residence  in  that  city. 

HIS    PLAUSIBILITY. 

He  apparently  was  able  to  explain  satisfactorily 
all  his  questionable  doings,  and  his  manners  were 
so  pleasant  and  so  agreeable  to  strangers  that  he 
was  continually  making  friends,  and  sometimes 
was  able  to  borrow  sums  of  money,  two  or  three 
different  times  from  the  same  parties,  who  were 
almost  total  strangers  to  him,  a  thing  that  perhaps 
few  persons  could  have  done. 


76 


MARRIED  LIFE  OF 


I  remember  of  one  instance  where  he  discovered 
that  I  was  acquainted  with  a  lady  who  is,  or  was 
then,  a  very  intimate  friend  of  George  W.  Childs, 
of  the  Philadelphia  Ledger.  Guiteau  had  an  idea  at 
that  time  that  he  wanted  to  go  to  San  Francisco 
for  the  purpose  of  opening  a  law  office  there,  and 
as  he  did  not  have  means  to  go  with  he  wished 
me  to  write  to  this  lady  to  see  if  he  could  borrow 
some  money  from  Mr.  Childs.  He  talked  about 
it  so  persistently  that  I  at  last  told  him  he  could 
write  to  the  lady,  as  she  was  an  intimate  acquain 
tance  of  mine  and  mention  the  request  he  desired 
to  make.  He  accordingly  wrote  to  her  and  en 
closed  his  note  payable  to  Mr.  Childs  for  the 
amount;  it  was  for  several  hundred  dollars  (I 
think  two  or  three  hundred)  that  he  wanted  Mr. 
Childs  to  loan  him  on  his  note.  I  do  not  remem 
ber  for  what  length  of  time  the  note  was  made 
out.  Of  course,  Mr.  Childs  did  not  see  fit  to 
advance  it,  because  he  did  not  know  him  and  he 
did  not  know  me.  Yet  Guiteau  was  very  san 
guine,  in  fact  convinced,  that  if  he  could  have  gone 
to  Philadelphia  he  could  have  gotten  that  loan — 
just  upon  the  strength  of  his  position  in  Chicago 
as  a  lawyer.  He  thought  if  he  could  once  intro 
duce  himself  with  his  business  card,  he  could  secure 
almost  anything  he  wished. 

BORROWING    MONEY. 

In   regard  to    his    borrowing    money,    I   might 
mention  another  incident.     He  at  one  time,  soon 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN. 


77 


after  our  marriage,  inquired  something  about  my 
relatives.  I  was  born  in  England,  and  my  relatives 
are  there.  He  asked  me,  a  number  of  times,  if  I  had 
not  relatives  living  there  ?  He  also  said,  "  It  is 
singular  you  don't  know  anything  about  your 
family,  who  they  are,  or  what  they  are,"  and  I 
told  him  that  I  had  a  cousin  who,  I  thought,  was 
probably  still  living  near  Liverpool,  but  that  I  had 
forgotten  his  address  ;  that  the  family  might  have 
moved,  and  that  I  did  not  know  anything  about 
them.  He  thought  it  likely  that  they  were  in 
pretty  good  circumstances,  and  he  had  a  wonderful 
desire  to  find  where  those  people  were  living. 
He  wrote  to  the  authorities  at  that  place  or  in  the 
neighborhood,  and  gave  the  address  of  the  family 
as  far  as  he  knew,  and  requested  that  a  special 
effort  should  be  made  to  trace  them  up,  and  dis 
cover  their  whereabouts,  and  that  he  should  be 
notified  of  the  result  of  the  inquiry;  he  sent  his 
card,  of  course,  enclosed  in  the  letter.  After  a 
time,  an  answer  came,  stating  that  the  family  were 
still  residing  in  the  same  place ;  that  my  aunt 
(my  father's  sister)  was  dead,  but  that  her  son  was 
married  and  was  living  there.  He  obtained  their 
address  and  wrote  to  them,  and  wanted  to  learn 
how  they  were  situated  financially,  which  was  his 
only  object  in  writing.  They  sent  us  a  very  kind 
letter  and  stated  their  pecuniary  circumstances, 
and  when  he  found  they  were  people  who  were 
not  able  to  help  us  (as  he  inferred  from  their 
7* 


*,g  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

letter),  he  never  mentioned  them  again.  He  never 
afterward  expressed  a  desire  to  know  anything 
about  them,  and  I  naturally  concluded  that  his 
object  in  communicating  with  them,  was  because 
they  might  possibly  be  in  a  position  to  aid  him 
in  money  matters  or  otherwise. 

BOARDING-HOUSE    EXPERIENCE. 

In  regard  to  board-bills,  there  was  scarcely  a 
place  at  which  we  boarded,  during  our  married 
life,  that  he  ever  paid  our  bills.  I  have  expe 
rienced  more  difficulties  in  that  respect  than  I 
could  describe.  He  was  always  unwilling  to  take 
a  house.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Scoville  tried  every  way 
to  induce  him  to  do  so.  They  even  offered  to 
rent  a  house  for  us,  and  furnish  it  comfortably,  so 
that  we  could  have  a  home,  but  he  never  would 
consent  to  such  a  thing.  He  insisted  that  it  was 
too  much  trouble  ;  that  there  was  too  much  work 
about  it;  that  it  was  a  great  deal  less  expensive 
to  board,  and  he  did  not  want  the  annoyance  of 
keeping  house;  consequently,  we  boarded  con 
stantly  in  Chicago,  from  the  time  we  were  married, 
in  1869,  until  the  fall  of  1871,  when  we  left  that 
city. 

We  stopped  sometimes  at  hotels  and  some 
times  at  boarding-houses,  and  he  invariably  made 
an  especial  effort  to  get  the  very  best  place,  and  se 
cure  the  best  accommodations  the  house  afforded, 
and  would  remain  just  as  long  as  they  would  allow 
us  to  stay.  As  a  result  of  his  procrastination 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  ~ 

and  failure  to  pay  his  debts,  the  people  who  kept 
the  hotels  and  boarding-houses  would  become 
tired  of  his  promises,  and  disgusted  with  us  both, 
and  treated  me  with  frowns  and  contempt.  Even 
if  he  had  money,  as  he  often  had,  it  was  impossible 
to  persuade  him  to  pay  such  bills;  if  there  was 
any  way  of  avoiding  such  bills,  he  would  refuse 
to  pay.  Occasionally,  when  his  creditors  would 
press  him  closely,  his  excuse  was:  "I  have 
been  disappointed  about  getting  money;  I  am 
expecting  one  hundred  or  two  hundred,  or  may 
be  three  hundred  dollars  in  a  day  or  so,  and  then 
I  will  settle  my  bill,  and  it  is  not  worth  while," 
he  would  perhaps  add,  "  for  you  to  get  '  on  your 
ear '  about  it  or  to  get  angry,  for  I  will  pay  you 
just  as  soon  as  I  have  the  money,  and  I  can't  pay 
before."  I  was  exceedingly  worried  and  an 
noyed  about  the  matter  and  would  urge  him  to 
pay  the  bills,  and  told  him  that  I  would  not  live 
that  way,  and  that  unless  he  paid  the  bills  I  would 
work  and  do  almost  anything  in  order  to  live  in 
an  honest  and  proper  manner  and  be  saved  the 
anxiety  and  inconvenience  to  which  his  conduct 
subjected  me. 

BAGGAGE    DETAINED. 

Our  baggage  would  time  and  time  again  be  de 
tained,  in  order  to  secure  the  payment  of  the 
board-bills.  I  cannot  begin  to  tell  the  number  of 
times  during  my  acquaintance  with  him  that  I  have 
lived  for  weeks,  sometimes  four  or  five  weeks  and 


go  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

even  into  months,  with  scarcely  a  change  of 
clothes,  on  account  of  the  detention  of  my  'clothes 
for  board.  In  some  instances  I  have  gone  person 
ally  to  the  creditors  and  actually  begged  them  to 
let  me  go  to  the  store-room  or  wherever  the  bag 
gage  was  kept,  and  open  the  trunk  and  take  out  a 
dress  or  an  article  of  clothing  I  was  compelled  to 
have,  and  then  wait  for  the  rest  until  he  could 
arrange  to  get  them.  He  did  not  usually  suffer  as 
much  inconvenience  as  I  did  from  these  matters, 
because  he  had  a  valise,  and  what  clothes  he 
needed,  or  he  thought  he  would  need  for  a  while, 
he  would  put  into  the  valise  and  take  it  away  with 
him.  The  greater  part  of  our  clothing,  however, 
was  kept  for  board. 

I  remember  one  occurrence  particularly,  while 
we  were  living  in  Chicago.  We  were  staying  at 
a  boarding-house  on  Wabash  Avenue  at  that  time. 
He  went  there  for  the  purpose  of  boarding  out  a 
bill  he  had  undertaken  to  collect  for  some  client. 
The  bill,  I  believe,  was  against  the  woman  who 
kept  the  house,  and  he  agreed  with  her  to  board 
out  his  share  of  the  claim  for  services  in  making 
the  collection.  He  accordingly  received  his  fee  in 
board,  and  continued  to  board  there  and  of  course 
never  turned  over  any  money  to  the  party  who 
gave  him  the  claim  to  collect.  The  client  was  not 
in  Chicago  at  the  time  and  did  not  know  anything 
about  it.  The  woman  became  very  tired  of  hav 
ing  us  there,  we  had  one  of  the  best  rooms  in  the 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  gj 

house,  and,  after  boarding  out  what  he  termed  his 
share  of  the  claim,  she  repeatedly  asked  him  for 
money.  He  would  pay  her  a  small  sum  once  in 
a  while,  and  it  ran  along  in  that  way  for  several 
months.  At  last  she  notified  him  that  he  would 
have  to  find  another  place,  as  she  needed  the 
room  for  some  one  who  would  pay  her  cash  every 
week,  and  he  owed  her  then  a  considerable 
amount..  We  had  two  or  three  trunks  at  that 
time,  and  when  we  came  to  vacate  she  would  not 
let  us  take  our  baggage  along  with  us,  and  we  had 
to  depart  without  anything  save  what  we  were 
wearing. 

But  he  vowed  when  he  left  the  house  that  he 
would  get  those  trunks  in  spite  of  anything  she 
might  do ;  that  he  would  not  allow  anyone  to 
"  beat "  him  in  that  way,  and  that  he  would  get 
those  trunks  and  she  would  not  get  anything — 
just  to  retaliate  for  their  detention. 

We  went  to  another  place  to  board,  and  some 
time  had  elapsed  when  he  one  day  informed  me 
that  he  had  at  once  commenced  replevin  proceed 
ings  in  court ;  and  he  had  to  wait  several  days,  I 
believe,  before  he  could  perfect  arrangements.  It 
was  in  the  summer  time,  and,  during  evenings  in 
warm  weather,  the  front  doors  of  houses  would 
be  left  open.  He  said  he  knew  the  room  in  which 
the  trunks  were  stored,  and  that  he  intended  to 
go  to  the  house  while  the  family  and  boarders 
were  at  their  meals  in  the  basement  (at  dinner  or 


g2  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

supper,  for  instance),  that  he  was  going  to  bring 
an  express-wagon  to  the  door,  that  he  would  walk 
right  into  the  house  and  into  the  room  and  have 
the  trunks  out  before  the  woman  could  know  any 
thing  about  it,  and  that,  if  she  should  attempt  to 
molest  or  interfere  with  him  in  any  way,  he  would 
secure  the  baggage  at  all  events.  And  he  did  so. 
He  succeeded  in  getting  them  out.  Just  as  he 
got  the  last  trunk  down  stairs,  this  lady  discovered 
it  and  called  on  some  of  the  boarders.  Before 
they  could  get  up  the  steps,  however,  to  help  her, 
he  was  on  the  wagon  driving  off  with  the  baggage, 
and  she  never  got  a  cent  from  him. 

He  had  the  baggage  brought  tip-stairs  into  our 
room,  paid  the  expressman  for  his  services,  and 
he  was  just  completely  exhausted  from  his  exer 
tions  and  excitement,  and  he  could  scarcely  ex 
press  his  delight  at  the  way  he  had  succeeded  in 
accomplishing  his  object.  He  talked  of  it  for 
hours  afterward ;  it  was  the  constant  theme  of  his 
conversation  on  all  that  day  and  the  next — the 
smartness  of  the  idea  and  the  brilliancy  of  its 
execution.  He  would  say:  "There  is  not  one 
man  in  five  hundred  who  would  have  attempted 
that;  they  would  be  afraid  they  would  be  shot 
at.  But  not  I ;  nobody  will  beat  me,  for  I  will  be 
even  with  them  in  the  end  !"  He  made  that  re 
mark  several  times,  walking  up  and  down  the 
room,  hysterically  clapping  his  hands  and  shouting : 
"  Sold  aofain  and  o-ot  the  tin  !" 

o  o 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  g~ 

He  looked  upon  such  an  act  as  a  great  achieve 
ment,  as  if  it  was  an  honor  to  him.  It  was  of  no 
use  to  attempt  to  reason  with  him  and  talk  about 
such  conduct  being  dishonest.  He  did  not  care 
anything  about  it;  he  was  impervious  to  senti 
ment  or  feeling.  I  never  heard  him  say  that  he  was 
sorry  for  behavior  of  that  kind :  he  apparently 
never  suffered  any  pangs  of  regret  on  account  of 
his  dishonesty. 

GETTING    OUT   OF    A    HOTEL. 

After  the  fire  in  Chicago  we  went  to  New  York, 
and  boarded  for  a  time  at  the  Cortlandt  Street 
Hotel,  in  the  lower  part  of  the  city,  and  the  same 
old  story  was  repeated  there.  The  proprietor 
was  very  patient,  and  would  sometimes  come  to 
him  at  the  table  and  tap  him  on  the  shoulder  and 
say :  "  I  will  have  to  trouble  you  for  some  money 
to-night,"  or  something  of  that  sort,  and  Guiteau 
would  always  turn  to  him  and  say  very  pleasantly 
and  politely:  "I  am  very  sorry  to  keep  you  so 
long ;  I  appreciate  your  kindness.  I  expected 
money  to-day,  but  didn't  get  it,  but  I  shall  pro 
bably  be  able  to  settle  with  you  to-morrow."  But 
the  proprietor  got  tired  of  waiting.  Guiteau  then 
owed  somethino-  over  one  hundred  dollars  for 

o 

board,  and  one  day  after  dinner  he  said  to  me  :  "  I 
tell  you  what  it  is,  I  haven't  got  the  money  to  pay, 
and  I  presume  I  had  better  leave.  I  hate  to  be 
annoyed  about  board ;  I  think  we  will  have  to 
get  a  place  up-town."  I  said :  "  I  presume  we 


84 


MARRIED  LIFE  OF 


shall  have  to  leave  our  baggage  again  for  board,'1 
and  made  some  remark  about  detesting  to  have  to 
live  in  that  way ;  and  he  said  :  "  I  tell  you  what  we 
can  do.  We  can  leave  some  things  here  and  we 
can  take  some  things  with  us."  But  the  difficulty 
was  how  to  cret  the  goods  out  of  the  house  with- 

o  o 

out  detection,  because  they  always  kept  the 
ladies'  entrance  fastened,  as  is  customary,  and  the 
entrance  through  the  office  was  so  public  it  would 
have  been  impossible  to  carry  away  anything  with 
out  being  observed.  He  did  not  know  what  to  do 
He  studied  over  it  some  time,  and  said:  "There 
is  one  thing  certain,  if  I  ever  get  out  of  here,  I 
will  never  pay  them  one  red  cent,"  as  he  was  in 
the  habit  of  saying.  The  room  we  had  was  on 
the  second  floor,  in  a  corner  of  the  hotel,  and 
fronting  on  the  street.  There  was  a  porch  under 
one  of  the  windows,  and  he  proposed  that  we 
should  fasten  up  some  of  the  articles  of  which  we 
were  in  the  most  need ;  that  he  should  go  down 
on  the  side-walk,  and  I  throw  these  things  out ; 
and  that  would  secure  them,  and  then  I  would 
go  out.  They  would  not  suspect  anything,  of 
course,  by  my  going  out  alone,  and  he  said :  "We 
will  leave  the  other  things  until  we  can  get  them 
out  at  some  time."  I  demurred  to  such  a  proceed 
ing,  and  he  got  very  mad,  and  said:  "You  are  a 
jackass ;  you  have  no  sense :  I  had  no  business 
to  have  a  wife  anyhow ;  if  I  had  not  a  wife  I 
would  have  none  of  this  annoyance  about  board- 


GU1TEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  g  - 

bills."  He  went  out  and  ascertained  that  our 
windows  were  right  over  the  clerk's  office  of  the 
hotel,  and  as  that  was  lighted  up  at  night,  his  pro 
posed  action  would  unavoidably  have  attracted 
immediate  attention:  and  he  said:  "Of  course, 
that  will  not  do.  But,  I  presume  they  will  be 
willing  for  us  to  take  a  valise,  or  something  of 
that  sort.  You  had  better  pack  up  some  things 
you  need  the  most."  I  did  so,  and  we  left  the 
hotel.  We  went  up  town,  and  took  board  at  a 
place  on  Twenty-second  Street,  I  think,  and  lived 
two  weeks  there,  and  our  trunks  were  kept  at  the 
hotel,  some  two  or  three  months,  before  he  made 
any  attempt  to  get  them. 

Those  are  only  a  few  characteristic  instances 
but  of  a  great  many.  Rather  than  make  an  effort 
to  get  the  money  like  any  one  who  would  pay,  he 
would  go  to  all  that  inconvenience.  He  had  an 
idea  that  whatever  he  could  cheat  a  boarding- 
house  or  hotel-keeper  out  of  was  so  much  clear 
gain.  The  only  motive  in  the  world  that  ever  in 
duced  him  to  pay  them  anything  was  in  order  to 
get  what  belonged  to  him — his  clothing  and  mine; 
that  was  the  only  reason  influencing  him  to  pay  at 
all,  and  he  regarded  that  as  an  unnecessary  ex 
penditure  altogether. 

LIVING    BEYOND    HIS    MEANS. 

Another  singular  feature  about  his  conduct  was 
that  he  was  always  anxious  to  live  so  far  beyond 
his  means.  It  was  always  :  "  Nothing  but  the  best," 
8 


g5  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

the  best  place  and  among  the  very  best  first-class 
people,  prominent  people,  people  well  known  so 
far  as  position  and  wealth  were  concerned.  That 
was  his  great  object — always  to  be  among  them 
and  to  live  at  the  most  expensive  places  and  to 
have  the  best  accommodations  ;  he  was  not  satis 
fied  to  live  in  plain  style  anywhere, 

RENTING    OFFICES. 

In  renting  offices  in  Chicago,  it  was  the  same 
way  as  in  boarding.  There  were  very  few  places 
where  he  had  an  office  that  he  paid  his  rent.  In 
nearly  every  instance  he  owed  for  rent,  and  he  re 
mained  just  as  long  as  he  could  comfortably,  and 
then  when  they  would  press  him  too  much  and 
become  persistent  about  his  settling  with  them  he 
would  say  that  he  could  find  a  better  place,  or  he 
would  find  some  fault  with  the  office,  or  the  parties 
he  was  with,  and  then  change.  And  this  was  re 
peated  over  and  over  again.  It  is  perhaps  impos 
sible  to  tell  how  many  persons  there  are  in  Chicago 
and  New  York,  whom  he  owes  for  office-rent  and 
board-bills.  There  are  probably  scores  of  them. 

BORROWING    MONEY. 

Dr.  McArthur  gave  very  good  testimony  at  the 
trial  illustrating  the  character  of  the  prisoner. 
Soon  after  we  went  to  New  York,  Guiteau  sent 
for  our  letters  from  the  Baptist  Church  in  Chicago, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  Calvary  Baptist  Church 
of  New  York,  Dr.  McArthur  being  the  pastor  at 
that  time.  He  attended  it  regularly  and  evinced 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  gy 

a  great  interest  in  it.  Several  months  after  we 
joined  that  church,  he  handed  me  a  note  one  day, 
and  said  that  he  wished  me  to  call  on  Mr.  Mc- 
Arthur  and  request  him  to  loan  one  hundred  dol 
lars  for  thirty  or  sixty  days  on  the  note,  which  I 
think  was  payable  "  on  demand."  At  first  I  stren 
uously  objected  to  it,  and  he  said,  "  Well,  I  know 
that  Mr.  McArthur  would  very  much  sooner  loan 
you  the  money  than  he  would  me,  because  he 
would  not  like  to  refuse  you  on  account  of  its 
being  a  lady  who  makes  the  request,  and  if  you 
go  to  him  very  pleasantly  and  tell  him  that  it  is  to 
pay  a  board-bill,  that  we  need  it  very  much,  and 
state  the  circumstances — that  I  have  been  here 
but  a  short  time;  that  I  have  not  got  fairly  started 
in  business,  having  lost  everything  in  the  Chicago 
fire — I  have  no  doubt  he  will  loan  you  the  money." 
With  great  reluctance,  I  went  to  Mr.  McArthur's 
house,  and  explained  it  to  him,  and  gave  him  this 
note,  and  he  was  very  kind  indeed.  He  stated 
that  he  did  not  have  that  much  money  with  him 
that  morning,  but  he  gave  me  twenty  dollars  and 
said  he  would  make  an  especial  effort  to  get  the 
rest  that  day,  and  to  call  or  send  for  the  remain 
der  ;  that  he  was  interested  in  us,  and  if  it  would 
help  us  he  would  be  only  too  glad  to  be  able  to 
assist.  And  he  did  as  he  promised.  I  think  the 
next  day,  or  a  clay  or  two  afterwards,  he  paid  the 
balance — in  all  ninety-five  dollars,  and,  as  he 
stated  in  his  testimony,  that  money  is  still  unpaid. 


gg  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

• 

Guiteau  never  made  the  slightest  attempt  to 
return  it  to  Mr.  McArthur,  and  never  said  any 
thing  about  paying  it.  I  talked  with  him  repeat 
edly  about  it  and  asked  if  he  ever  intended  to 
repay  the  money,  and  his  reply  was:  "Well,  per 
haps,  sometime  when  it  is  perfectly  convenient  for 
me  to  return  the  money,  I  will  do  it,  but  not  before, 
and  it  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  say  anything 
more  on  the  subject.  Dr.  McArthur  does  not  need 
it ;  he  has  a  large  congregation ;  receives  a  large 
salary,  and  a  hundred  dollars  is  nothing  to  him. 
He  doesn't  expect  us  to  return  it.  He  is  a  good 
man  and  he  gives  that  with  perfect  good-will ;  he 
will  think  none  the  less'  of  us  for  not  returning  the 
money." 

STILL   BORROWING. 

Guiteau  was  also  acquainted  with  General  Jones, 
then  Postmaster  at  New  York.  Subsequently  to 
the  incident  I  have  just  mentioned,  he  was  taken 
sick,  and  we  were  in  great  want  of  money;  and 
he  said:  "I  think  I  will  get  you  to  call  on  Post 
master  Jones,  and  I  will  make  my  note  and  you 
can  give  it  to  him."  I  forget  the  amount,  but  I 
think  he  wished  to  borrow  seventy-five  or  one 
hundred  dollars.  His  excuse  then  was  that  he 
knew  very  well  that  General  Jones  would  not  re 
fuse  me;  that  he  might  refuse  him,  but  not  me. 
He  said:  "Your  manners  are  so  pleasant  and  you 
seem  so  amiable  and  lady-like,  people  won't  dare 
to  refuse  you."  So  I  went  to  General  Jones,  very 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  gg 

reluctantly  again,  ancf  I  succeeded  in  getting  the 
amount.  I  never  heard  of  Guiteau's  returning 
that  money,  and  his  apology  was  just  the  same  as 
in  the  case  of  Mr.  McArthur — that  he  was  a 
wealthy  man,  and  would  not  miss  it.  But  I  told 
him  at  that  time  that  he  need  never  again  ask  me 
to  go  to  anyone  to  borrow  money  :  "I  positively 
will  not  do  it,"  I  said:  "You  told  me  often  that 
you  would  pay  this  money  to  these  parties,  and  I 
will  never  do  such  a  thing  again;  I  had  rather 
starve  than  do  it."  I  presume  he  would  have  sent 
me  to  a  number  of  others,  borrowing  money  on 
his  note,  if  I  would  have  consented  to  do  it. 

HIS    TEMPERATE    HABITS. 

Guiteau  never  drank  or  used  tobacco.  He  has 
many  times  said  that  he  disliked  the  taste  and 
smell  of  liquor  in  any  form,  and  that  his  father 
disliked  those  things  very  much  also.  He  was 
perfectly  temperate  in  this  respect,  and  I  have 
wondered  at  it.  He  seemed  to  be  always  per 
fectly  sensible  of  what  he  was  doing.  He  would 
plan  and  study  up  things  for  hours ;  his  mind  was 
often  deeply  buried  in  some  project  that  would 
give  him  fame  and  wealth. 

ASPIRING    TO    FAME. 

He  was  sure  that  he  was  destined  to  be  at  some 
time  "  famous  in  this  world,"  as  he  expressed  it, 
and  he  constantly  conversed  about  it — that  he 
knew  the  time  was  coming  when  he  would  be  a 

o 

"  big  man."     He  used  to  walk  back  and  forth  be- 


QO  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

fore  the  glass  and  pull  down  his  coat  and 
straighten  back  his  shoulders,  so  as  to  give  him 
self  a  conspicuous  appearance.  If  there  was  any 
peculiarity  in  his  style  of  dress  or  deportment  in 
the  street,  it  was  in  keeping  with  his  desire  to  look 
like  some  of  our  noted  men.  He  has  asked  me 
the  question  repeatedly :  "  Don't  you  think  I 
would  look  like  a  good  Foreign  Minister?"  or 
something  of  that  kind.  His  great  predominating 
ambition  at  that  time  was  to  be  noted  in  some 
thing.  While  conversing  on  the  subject  he  would 
mention  the  early  lives  of  some  of  our  prominent 
men — particularly  those  born  and  reared  in  ob 
scurity  and  poverty.  He  would  say:  " There  is 
such  and  such  a  man,  occupying  such  a  position 
to-day ;  he  was  born  in  poverty.  There  are  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  Mr.  Greeley,  and  so  it  has  been  with 
me ;  I  have  had  a  hard  time,  a  hard  road  to  travel, 
but  the  time  is  coming  when  I  will  be  just  as  fa 
mous  as  they  are."  And  I  would  laugh  at  him 
and  come  down  to  everyday  life ;  I  at  that  time 
wanted  something  comfortable,  something  whereby 
we  could  live ;  his  mind  was  always  in  the  future  ; 
I  would  say :  "  I  do  not  think  you  are  living  now 
as  you  ought  to  live  if  you  are  expecting  to  be  a 
prominent  man  ;  you  are  not  living  in  the  proper 
way  now."  But  of  course  he  would  not  take  that 
view  of  the  matter. 

EARNING     LITTLE. 

He  habitually  represented  that  he  made  a  great 


GUITEAU,   THE   ASSASSIN.  OT 

deal  more  money  than  he  ever  did,  the  actual  fact 
being  that  he  made  but  little  money  rightfully,  and 
the  only  way  he  succeeded  in  getting  any  money 
at  all  was  either  by  borrowing  or  by  collecting  old 
debts,  and  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  he  would  col 
lect  half  (or  what  he  was  pleased  to  consider  his 
half)  and  keep  it ;  if  he  should  at  any  time  obtain 
the  rest,  why  all  well  enough. 

TRIP   TO    SAN    FRANCISCO. 

While  we  were  living  in  Chicago — I  think  it 
was  in  the  summer  of  1871 — he  decided  to  go  to 
San  Francisco  and  open  a  law  office  there ;  he 
was  thoroughly  disgusted  with  Chicago.  After  he 
failed  to  get  money  from  Mr.  Childs,  of  Phila 
delphia,  he  managed  to  obtain  some  elsewhere — I 
presume  through  collecting  bills,  and  retaining 
what  did  not  belong  to  him,  because  he  never 
seemed  to  get  money  in  any  other  way.  He  went 
to  San  Francisco  and  was  absent  about  two  weeks. 
He  returned  to  Chicago,  and  said  he  was  perfectly 
satisfied  with  Chicago,  that  he  did  not  think  he 

o     ' 

would  care  to  live  in  San  Francisco  at  all,  and  he 
stated  that  while  he  was  there  he  had  stopped  at 
the  Cosmopolitan  Hotel,  which  at  that  time  was 
considered  to  be  one  of  the  handsomest  hotels  in 
that  city,  and  he  mentioned  that  circumstance  with 
great  glee — that  his  stay  there  had  cost  him  noth 
ing,  getting  the  very  best  accommodations  and 
living  in  the  best  of  style  at  no  expense  what 
ever. 


Q9  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

REMOVAL  TO  NEW  YORK. 

We  were  living  in  Chicago  at  the  time  of  the 
fire  in  October,  1871.  He  had  quite  a  nice  library, 
and  he  lost  that  and  the  furniture  in  his  office  in 
the  conflagration.  We  succeeded  in  saving  our 
clothes,  but  nothing  more. 

From   Chicago   we   came   to   New  York.     He 

o 

decided  to  establish  himself  there  and  renew  his 
law  practice.  The  first  office — or  desk-room  rather 
— that  he  rented  was  with  Mr.  McLane  Shaw,  who 
testified  at  the  trial,  the  office  being  at  59-61 
Liberty  Street.  He  remained  there  nearly  a  year. 
We  took  board  up-town,  and  the  experience 
which  we  had  passed  through  in  Chicago,  in  regard 
to  board-bills,  was  repeated  in  New  York,  as  I 
have  before  stated.  We  would  stay  a  while  at 
one  place  and  then  have  to  leave  our  baggage,  or 
possibly  get  it  and  go  to  another  place  and  board 
there  and  then  leave  that,  and  so  on  always  and 
everywhere. 

GOOD    REFERENCES. 

I  believe  he  obtained  considerable  practice  in 
New  York.  He  had  business  cards  printed,  and 
with  quite  a  number  of  references  to  responsible 
men  on  the  back,  in  order  that  persons  to  whom 
he  applied  for  business,  could  refer  to  those  gen 
tlemen  for  any  needed  information,  as  to  his  char 
acter  and  ability.  I  remember  that  one  of  those 
references  was  to  the  firm  of  Reynolds  &  Phelps, 
of  Chicago,  another  to  his  brother  John  W.  Gui- 


GUITEAU,   7 HE  ASSASSIN.  g., 

teau,  who  was  then  in  Boston,  I  think,  another  to 
General  Jones,  the  then  Postmaster  at  New  York, 
in  addition  to  several  others.  He  had  five  or  six 
references,  and  whenever,  he  applied  for  business, 
he  would  turn  his  card  over  and  say,  "you  can 
refer  to  any  of  these,"  and  that  was  generally 
satisfactory. 

He  resolved  to  make  collections  a  specialty, 
and  attend  to  nothing  else.  He  said  that  it  was 
a  branch  of  the  law-business,  and  he  thought  he 
could  do  very  well  at  that,  and  he  went  around 
among  the  merchants,  and  leading  business  houses 
in  New  York,  and  obtained  a  great  many  bills  for 
collection,  and*  I  believe  that  he  succeeded  in  col- 
lecing  considerable  money  on  their  account. 

He  had  difficulty  with  nearly  all  his  clients,  in 
New  York,  as  he  had  had  with  those  in  Chicago. 
He  was  several  times  threatened  with  arrest  for 
withholding  moneys  that  he  had  received,  but  he 
always  got  out  of  it  in  some  way;  he  was  never 
arrested  during  my  acquaintance  with  him. 

POLITICAL    ASPIRATIONS. 

He  continued  in  this  branch  of  the  law  business 
in  New  York  during  that  winter  and  the  spring 
and  summer  of  1872,  following.  When  Mr. 
Greeley  was  nominated  for  the  Presidency  Guiteau 
made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  get  out  of  the 
law  business  and  get  into  politics  with  Mr. 
Greeley.  He  talked  of  him  continually,  almost 
everything  that  Mr.  Greeley  had  done  in  the  past 


QA  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

was  discussed,  and  he  read  his  life  and  read  the 
New  York  Tribune,  and  he  became  infatuated 
with  the  idea  of  going  into  the  canvass  and  doing 
everything  he  possibly  could  for  the  election  of 
that  gentleman ;  Mr.  Greeley  being  "just  the 
man  for  the  place."  He  accordingly  wrote  quite  a 
number  of  speeches  and  probably  visited  the  com 
mittee  rooms  for  the  purpose  of  getting  an  oppor 
tunity  to  address  meetings.  They  used  to  have 
torchlight  processions  and  open-air  meetings,  and 
he  would  go  out  in  the  evenings  ostensibly  to 
deliver  his  speeches,  and  he  did  make  addresses 
at  several  assemblies  in  different  parts  of  the  city. 
He  would  say  that  he  had  been  appointed  to  speak 
at  various  places,  and  would  come  home  much 
delighted  at  his  success,  and  he  was  particularly 
pleased  at  the  notice  of  his  address  in  the  papers 
of  the  following  day. 

WRITING    HIS    CHIEF    SPEECH. 

He  wrote  a  speech  that  he  regarded  as  a 
wonderful  production,  and  I  find  that  it  is  substan 
tially  the  same  speech  that  was  offered  in  evidence 
at  the  trial — the  speech  entitled  "  Garfield  against 
Hancock."  There  are  sentences  in  that  speech 
that,  when  I  commenced  to  read  it,  came  to  me  as 
plainly  as  when  he  composed  it.  He  read  it  over 
and  over  again  ;  sometimes  he  would  sit  up  nearly 
all  night  working  on  that  address — changing  it 
and  thoroughly  revising  it. 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  g* 

STICKING    TO    POLITICS. 

During  that  summer  he  neglected,  almost  en 
tirely,  his  law  business,  He  had  no  income,  and 
our  condition  was  terribly  embarrassing  and  dis 
tressing  to  me.  We  had  no  means  with  which  to 

o 

live,  and  yet  he  persisted  in  his  resolution  of 
"sticking  right  to  politics,"  and  nothing  else.  He 
said  that  after  a  time  he  would  be  rewarded  for 
his  services,  for  he  knew  that  just  as  soon  as  Mr. 
Greeley  should  be  elected  he  would  appoint 
him  to  a  foreign  mission ;  that  he  had  consulted 
different  persons  about  the  foreign  missions,  and 
believed  that  the  one  he  would  prefer  to  have  above 
all  others,  was  that  of  Minister  to  Chili.  He  de 
nied  this  in  court  and  stated  that  it  was  the  Swiss 
mission,  but  I  never  heard  him  refer  to  that  be 
fore.  He  was  apparently  fully  informed  about 
these  foreign  appointments,  the  salaries  attached 
to  them,  at  what  time  he  would  go  there,  etc. 
Often  times,  when  speaking  of  our  embarrassed 
circumstances,  he  would  say :  "Well  we  will  try  to 
put  up  with  these  things  for  a  while;  after  a  time 
I  will  have  a  good  position.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  Mr.  Greeley  will  be  elected;  and  as  soon  as 
he  is  elected,  I  shall  see  him  and  tell  him  of  the 
work  I  have  done,  and  shall  ask  him  as  a  compen 
sation  for  the  services  I  have  rendered,  to  appoint 
me  to  that  foreign  mission."  And  he  would  fre 
quently  ask  me  if  I  did  not  think  he  would  fill  the 
position  well,  and  turn  to  look  in  the  glass  and 


96 


MARRIED  LIFE  OF 


add:  "I  think  I  would  look  very  well  in  such  a 
position  as  that ;  don't  you  think  I  could  fill  the 
office  first-rate?"  and  similar  comments  which, 
showed  it  was  his  constant  thought,  and  he  worked 
at  his  scheme  with  a  great  deal  of  perseverence — 
more  than  he  ever  displayed  at  anything  else. 

DISAPPOINTED. 

He  continued  to  work  in  the  Campaign  until  the 
fall.  I  was  not  in  New  York,  at  the  time  Mr. 
Greeley  died,  but  he  was  there,  and  he  wrote  to 
me  afterward  of  the  death,  stating  what  a  dreadful 
disappointment  it  was  to  him.  It  seemed  to 
completely  unfit  him  for  everything ;  he  was 
utterly  disheartened,  and  did  not  have  the  desire 
or  inclination  to  undertake  anything  whatever. 

As  soon  as  I  heard  of  the  assassination,  his  career 
during  the  other  campaign  came  to  my  mind  at 
once ;  the  interest  which  he  took  in  it,  his  positive 
confidence  that  he  was  to  have  a  position,  and  the 
disappointment — all  these  things,  were  reproduced 
before  me,  the  moment  I  heard  of  his  crime.  He 
evidently  worked  in  the  last  campaign,  with  as 
much  zeal  as  he  did  in  the  other.  I  cannot  say 
that  I  was  surprised  to  hear  of  the  assassination. 
The  idea  of  his  being  insane,  however,  never 
occurred  to  me,  at  all — it  never  occurred  to  me 
at  that  time,  or  during  the  time  I  lived  with  him. 

THE    "  INSPIRATION  "    DODGE. 

I  never  heard  anything  of  "  inspiration  "  until  I 
came  to  Washington.  There  is  no  doubt  in  my 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  gy 

mind  but  that  this  has  been  an  afterthought  on  his 
part.  He  has  been  alone  in  the  prison;  he  has 
looked  back  and  seen  his  danger  and  realized  how 
the  people  regarded  him,  and  he  has  said  to  him 
self:  "  I  have  got  to  get  up  something,"  and  he 
has  studied  and  studied  and  finally  resolved  that 
the  plea  of  "  insanity  "  or  "  inspiration  "  was  the 
only  thing  that  could  save  him.  Or  he  may  have 
carefully  studied  out  his  proposed  defense  before 
the  assassination. 

Now,  there  is  another  reason  that  leads  me  to 
think  this  view  of  the  matter  is  correct.  During 
my  acquaintance  with  him  I  do  not  remember  of 
his  ever  making  any  remark  about  "  inspiration." 
I  might  hold  a  different  opinion  if  he  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  believing  then  that  he  was  led  by 
God  to  do  certain  things  and,  as  it  is  now  pre 
tended,  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  hearing  voices 
in  his  dreams  directing  him  to  do  certain  things. 
But  he  never  spoke  of  dreaming.  That  is  one  of 
the  first  things  Mr.  Scoville  asked  me  when  I 
came  to  Washington — if  I  had  ever  heard  Charles 
refer  to  voices  speaking  to  him  "  in  dreams,"  and 
I  just  laughed  at  the  question.  In  fact,  I  don't 
think  that  he  ever  dreamed  ;  he  never  told  me  that 
he  had  dreams ;  he  never  talked  of  such  things. 

INGENIOUS    PLEAS. 

The  "  inspiration  "  plea  is  entirely  new  to  me, 
for  he   never  was  in  the  habit  of  using  that  term. 
He  was  always  very  ingenious  at  devising  defenses 
9 


98 


MARRIED  LIFE   OF 


and  excuses  for  his  misdeeds.  He  was  in  the 
habit  of  talking  with  me  about  certain  notes  and 
bills  that  he  had  collected,  and  "Now,"  he  would 
say,  "  when  they  come  to  me  for  this  settlement, 
why  I  will  tell  them  such  and  such  a  thing ;  that  I 
could  not  succeed  in  collecting  that  amount  from 
such  and  such  a  one ;  that  they  had  gone  away 
somewhere  and  I  could  not  find  where  they 
were."  He  would  describe  the  whole  thing  glibly 
and  consistently,  and  when  his  clients  would  come 
and  inquire  in  regard  to  these  accounts  he  would 
explain  it  in  such  a  manner  that  they  would  not 
doubt  for  a  moment  that  it  was  exactly  as  he 
stated. 

I  have  known  of  many  firms  in  New  York 
with  whom  he  had  dealings  that  did  not  find  out 
the  exact  state  of  affairs  for  months  after  he  had 
made  the  collections,  and  then  perhaps  by  that 
time  he  would  be  away  from  the  city,  or  rather 
than  have  any  difficulty  with  him,  they  would  let 
the  matter  go.  Whenever  they  called  he  would 
receive  them  so  amiably  and  explain  everything 
so  satisfactorily  to  them  that  perhaps,  if  they  were 
angry  when  they  commenced  to  talk  with  him,  be 
fore  they  left,  they  would  seem  to  be  pleasant 
and  perfectly  satisfied.  That  is  one  reason,  as  I 
say,  why  I  thought  as  soon  as  I  heard  it  that  his 
claim  of  "  inspiration  "  was  an  afterthought  or  an 
artifice  on  his  part,  because  I  know  he  was  so  ex 
cellent  in  such  matters.  He  made  a  specialty  of 


GLITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIAr.  gg 

studying  up  defenses  by  which  he  could  explain 
or  cover  anything  and  make  it  appear  correct. 

HABITUAL    DECEPTION. 

Judging  from  the  deception  which  he  practised 
in  small  affairs,  and  his  general  behavior  in  our 
married  acquaintance,  I  am  unable  to  detect  any 
material  variation  from  his  former  conduct,  so  far 
as  I  have  seen  his  actions  in  court  and  at  the  jail. 
In  fact,  if  I  had  not  known  that  the  defense  was  "  in 
sanity"  the  suggestion  never  would  have  occurred 
to  me  for  a  moment  that  there  was  anything 
wrong  with  him.  I  have  merely  thought  of  in 
sanity  in  connection  with  the  plea,  and,  in  my 
opinion,  there  is  not  the  slightest  foundation  for  it. 
The  only  difference  I  notice  is  in  his  thin  and 
haggard  appearance,  which  of  course  is  easily 
accounted  for  by  his  nomadic,  or  "tramp"  ex 
periences. 

COMMITTING    CRIME    FOR    NOTORIETY. 

As  soon  as  I  heard  of  the  crime  and  afterward 
read  more  of  the  circumstances,  I  formed  the 
opinion  that  he  had  committed  it  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  notoriety. 

His  disappointment  at  not  obtaining  the  foreign 
mission  that  he  had  labored  so  hard  tb  obtain,  and 
his  other  disappointments,  his  impecunious  con 
dition  and  failure  in  everything  he  had  under 
taken — all  these  circumstances  led  me  to  think  that 
he  was  actuated  by  a  desire  to  become  noted  in 
some  wav.  He  knew  of  course,  that  if  he  com- 


IOO  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

mitted  that  act  he  would  become  notorious,  and 
looking  back  over  his  past  life,  and  knowing  so 
well  how  morbidly  anxious  he  was  for  fame,  and 
to  have  his  name  known  over  the  land,  his  egotism 
and  pride,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  at  once — be 
fore  I  had  heard  anything  of  "  insanity"  or  "  inspi 
ration  " — that  he  had  done  the  act  for  that  purpose. 
His  being  insane  or  ignorant  of  the  enormity  of 
the  crime  he  committed,  never  suggested  them- 
elves  to  my  mind.  I  knew  that  he  was  always  re 
sponsible  ;  that  he  always  knew  the  difference  be 
tween  right  and  wrong,  and  had  the  power  to 
control  himself  when  it  was  to  his  interest  or 
suited  his  inclination  do  so. 

FAMILY    LETTERS. 

In  October  last,  I  received  a  letter  from  a  sister 
of  Guiteau's  in  relation  to  the  crime ;  it  is  very 
ingeniously  worded,  apparently  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  some  admission  from  me  as  to  the 

o 

insanity  of  her  brother,  for  use  at  the  trial,  but  I 
promptly  answered  the  letter,  according  to  the  ex 
act  facts.  The  two  communications  are  as  fol 
low: 

532  WEST ST., 

CHICAGO,  Oct.  29111,  1881. 
MY  DEAR  ANNIE: 

I  have  thought  of  you  and  what  you  must  feel,  since  our 
poor  Charles  has  brought  upon  us,  and  himself,  as  well  as 
upon  the  whole  people,  this  terrible  trouble  through  his  in 
sane  act.  What  I  have  suffered  in  view  of  the  sufferings  of 
our  departed  President  and  his  family,  the  good  Lord  only 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  IOI 

knows.  If  we  only  could  have  known  what  the  future  was  to 
bring  forth,  we,  perhaps  might  have  prevented  it.  But  it  is 
so  hard  for  friends  to  believe  that  those  they  are  constantly 
with,  and  have  long  and  truly  loved,  are  really  insane,  and 
ought  to  be  deprived  of  their  liberty,  that  our  case  is 
only  one  of  hundreds,  where  the  proper  steps  are  deferred 
until  something  terrible  happens.  When  I  look  back  now 
and  can  see  so  plainly,  what  then  I  only  saw  in  part,  and  can 
see  what  a  risk  you  and  I  were  in  of  losing  our  lives,  I  am 
amazed  we  could  have  been  so  blind. 

He  raised  an  axe  at  me  four  years  ago,  and  then  I  insisted 
upon  having  him  examined ;  but  before  we  got  to  the  point 
of  having  anything  done  about  it,  he  slipped  away.  If  I  had 
only  persisted  then  in  putting  him  in  an  asylum,  how  much 
better  it  would  have  been  ! 

I  saw  your  mother  a  few  days  ago.  She  is  very  well ;  says 
she  thinks  Charles  was  crazy  long  ago.  The  doctors  tell  me 
a  marked  symptom  in  such  cases  as  his  is  a  persistent  deter 
mination  to  marry  some  woman  with  whom  they  become  in 
fatuated.  First  one,  and  then  another.  The  insanity  expert 
in  the  case  considers  it  important  to  know,  if  he  ever  thought 
he  heard  voices  commanding  him  to  do  certain  things,  espe 
cially  voices  in  the  night.  Do  you  know  of  any  such  facts? 
They  are  not  essential ;  but  if  you  do,  we  would  like 
to  take  your  deposition  or  affidavit.  You  will  confer  a 
favor  upon  me,  and  may  save  him  from  further  misfortune  by 
giving  your  testimony  towards  proving  his  insanity.  Mrs. 

P has  no  doubt  he  was  insane  when  he  boarded  at  her 

house  with  you,  and  from  what  she  saw  of  him  after  her  hus 
band's  death;  she  went  over  to  Mr.  Scoville's  office  and  told 
him  so,  and  wanted  his  father  informed ;  they  were  then  afraid 
of  him — she  and  her  daughter. 

If  you  know  of  anything  that  will  be  of  service,  write  me 
what  it  is — anything  you  can  think  of,  and  we  will  send  on 
copies  of  interrogations  for  you  to  answer  and  swear  to  before 
a  notary.  You  will  have  to  send  us  name  of  notary.  If  you 


102 


MARRIED  LIFE  OF 


can  think  of  anything  going  to  show  his  insanity,  do  not  fail 
to  send  it. 

What  we  want  is  to  place  him  in  an  "  Insane  Criminal  Asy 
lum,"  of  which  there  are  two  in  this  country,  one  in  St.  Louis. 
He  will  never  be  better,  but  will  be  properly  cared  for  during 
life,  which  the  Lord  grant  may  not  be  long.  You,  of  all 
others,  can  understand  how  my  heart  aches  for  him.  He  was 
my  dead  mother's  son.  He  was  the  husband  of  your  youth. 
We  loved  him. 

Hoping  to  hear  from  you  immediately,  I  am,  as  ever, 

Your  friend, 


P.  S.— Preserve  this  letter.  You  will  see  by  the  papers  the 
poor  fellow  is  terribly  changed.  Anything  proving  that  he 
believed  he  was  acting  under  Divine  direction  would  be  of 
value.  You  need  not  wait  to  answer  this,  but  send  your  depo 
sition  right  along.  The  time,  is  shjrt.  Write  me  what  you 
intend  to  say,  also. 

138  EAST  SECOND  STREET, 
LEADVILLE,  COL.,  Nov.  5th,  1881. 
DEAR : 

Yours  of  the  2Qth  inst.,  was  received,  and  in  reply  I  desire 
you  to  accept  my  sincere  sympathy  in  this  dreadful  sorrow 
through  which  you  are  passing. 

You  desire  to  know  how  I  feel  with  reference  to  the  state 
of  Charles'  mind,  during  my  acquaintance  with  him.  I  have 
read  your  letter,  carefully,  and  have  studied  well  each  ques 
tion,  and  have  tried  to  recall  any  instance,  during  our  mar 
ried  life,  where  I  had  cause  to  look  upon  him  as  a  man  of 
unsound  mind,  and  I  must  say,  that  I  have  failed  to  find 
aught  which  would  convey  that  idea.  I  met  with  him  repeat 
edly,  some  four  years  ago,  previous  to  my  leaving  Chicago  for 
Denver,  and  then  I  saw  nothing  which  would  impress  me 
that  he  was  not  a  responsible  man.  That  he  has  been  de 
luded,  to  some  extent — of  that  fact,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

Now,  with  regard  to  my  mother's  opinion,  as  you  mention, 


G  UITEA  U,  THE  ASSASSIN. 


that  Charles  was  always  crazy.  She  never  has  expressed  herself 
before  in  that  way,  only  since  your  and  Mrs.  P  --  's  visit  to 
her,  and  on  account  of  her  exceeding  sensibility  and  nervous 
ness,  I  presume,  she  expressed  herself  so,  under  the  influence 
of  the  moment. 

You  also  speak  of  Mrs.  P  -  's  opinion  as  the  same. 
Strange  that  she  never  mentioned  her  fears  to  me,  knowing 
her  as  intimately  and  as  long  as  I  did.  However,  looking 
over  all  these  facts,  I  am  entitled  to  my  own  opinion  with  re 
gard  to  Charles'  sanity  or  insanity  ;  living  with  him  and 
knowing  him  as  only  a  wife  can  know  a  man,  it  is  natural  that 
I  could  form  a  tolerably  correct  idea  on  the  subject.  You 
judge  me  wrong,  if  you  think  I  have  at  this  late  day  no  feel 
ing  or  pity  for  him  in  his  deplorable  condition.  God  above 
knows  how  exceedingly  sad  I  have  felt  during  these  last  few 
months,  and  I  daily  beseech  Almighty  God  to  open  his  dark 
ened  mind  to  a  true  sense  of  his  error,  and  save  him  in  his 
time  of  need.  However  charitably  inclined  we  may  try  to 
look  upon  him,  the  thought  will  present  itself  to  our  minds 
that  he  is  only  reaping  what  he  has  sown  ;  and  the  more  I 
look  upon  his  past  deeds  the  more  positive  I  feel  that  his 
mind  was  good  and  sound.  He  doubtless  now  well  remem 
bers  my  oft-repeated  warning  to  him,  when  we  lived  together. 
It  was  this  :  "  Unless  you  change  your  course  of  action,  you 
will  be  led  down  until  you  end  your  life  either  on  the  gal 
lows  or  in  a  penitentiary."  It  will  seem  very  harsh  for  me  to 
talk  thus,  but  think  what  I  suffered  on  his  account.  'Tis  true, 
he  was  the  husband  of  my  youth,  and  I  loved  him  better  than 
anything  on  earth,  but  he  crushed  me,  he  spurned  my  love, 
and  turned  me  out  sick  and  poor  to  make  my  living,  while  he 
lived  in  style  and  supported  improper  women.  In  answer  to 
my  loving  letters  he  would  say  I  was  too  affectionate  and  he 
could  not  afford  to  keep  a  wife,  when  I  would  have  been 
happy  to  have  lived  with  him  and  shared  a  crust.  Ah,  the 
many  bitter  tears  I  have  shed,  the  loving  Heavenly  Father 
above  only  knows.  At  last,  when  I  had  decided  to  obtain  a 


MARRIED  LIFE  OF 


decree  of  divorce  from  him,  even  then  I  could  scarcely  tear 
myself  from  him,  and  would  rather  have  died  than  lived. 

Again,  neither  those  friends  who  obtained  my  divorce  nor 
the  bill  for  divorce,  mentioned  insanity  at  that  time. 

With  much  love  and  sympathy  for  you  and  family,  I  am, 
Yours  truly, 

MRS.  THEO.  DUNMIRE. 

PROCEEDINGS    FOR    DIVORCE. 

In  the  winter  of  1872,  I  was  absent  in  Phila 
delphia  for  awhile  ;  from  there  I  returned  to  !N"ew 
Xork,  and  he  was  still  doing  some  law  business, 
though  not  very  much.  But  for  a  long  time  he 
did  not  take  any  interest  in  his  business,  as  he  had 
done  previously  ;  he  was  unsettled,  and  did  not 
seem  to  care  to  attend  or  apply  himself  to  his 
business.  The  following  spring  of  1873  I  lived 
there,  and  in  the  summer  I  went  away,  and  that  is 
really  the  termination  of  my  acquaintance  with 
him..  I  lived  with  some  friends  near  Saratoga 
Springs,  and  the  following  fall  I  met  him  again  a 
little  while,  but  did  not  live  constantly  with  him 
after  that  summer. 

In  the  fall  of  1873,  while  I  was  in  Philadelphia, 
I  commenced  proceedings  for  divorce,  assisted  by 
my  friends  in  that  city,  the  family  of  Mr.  Wood. 
The  application  was  made  through  Mr.  Wood,  and 
the  suit  was  instituted  in  Kings  County,  New 
York,  for  absolute  divorce  on  the  ground  of  adul 
tery.  Guiteau  put  in  no  defense.  The  case  was 
referred  to  Mr.  Levi  A.  Fuller,  as  referee,  to  take 
testimony  and  report.  He  reported  in  my  favor, 


GLITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  IOc 

favor,  and  on  the  fourth  day  of  April,  1874,  Justice 
Calvin  E.  Pratt  passed  the  decree  of  divorce, 
which  is  as  follows : 

DECREE    OF    DIVORCE. 
In  the  Supreme  Court 

Kings  County. 
ANNIE  J.  GUITEAU,       \  At  a  special  term  af  this  Court  held  at  the  city  of 

Plff.,    J       Brooklyn,  April  4,  1874. 
against 
CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU,  V  Present :  Hon.  C.  E.  Pratt, 

Deft.  /  Justice. 

This  action  having  been  brought  on  to  be  heard  upon  the 
complaint  herein  and  upon  proof  of  the  defendant's  failure 
to  answer,  and  upon  the  report  of  Levi  A.  Fuller,  Esq.,  duly 
appointed  referee  in  this  action,  from  which  it  appears  that 
the  material  facts  alleged  in  the  complaint  are  true,  and  that 
the  defendant  has  committed  the  adultery  charged  therein, 
on  motion  of  Warren  G.  Brown,  plaintiffs  attorney, 

It  is  adjudged,  That  the  marriage  between  the  said  plaintiff 
Annie  J.  Guiteau  and  the  defendant  Charles  J.  Guiteau  be  dis 
solved  in  pursuance  of  the  statute  in  such  case  made  and  pro 
vided,  and  the  same  is  hereby  dissolved  accordingly,  and  the 
said  parties  are  and  each  of  them  is  freed  from  the  obligations 
thereof  with  fifty-one  -^"VV  dollars  costs  of  this  action  to  the 
plaintiff,  and  the  privilege  to  her  of  applying  to  the  court  at 
such  time  as  she  shall  be  advised  for  a  suitable  allowance  for 
her  support  in  the  nature  of  alimony. 

And  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  the  said  Charles  J.  Guiteau 
to  marry  again  until  the  said  Annie  J.  Guiteau  is  actually 
dead. 

I  do  not  think  any  application  for  alimony  was 
ever  made  on  my  behalf;  I  did  not  make  the 
attempt  because  it  would  have  been  impossible, 
in  my  opinion,  to  have  obtained  anything  from 


IO6  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

him.  He  agreed  with  Mr.  Wood  to  pay  the  costs 
of  the  proceeding,  amounting  to  about  $125,  and 
I  believe  he  gave  his  note  for  that  amount,  or 
made  some  arrangement  of  that  sort,  but  he  never 
did  pay  it,  and  Mr.  Wood,  as  I  understand,  paid 
the  money  out  of  his  own  pocket,  and  has  never 
been  reimbursed  by  Guiteau  even  to  this  day. 

TESTIMONY    IN    THE    DIVORCE    CASE. 

I  was  not  present  at  the  hearing  of  the  case  and 
know  of  the  testimony  that  was  taken  merely  from 

information.     I  understand  that  Guiteau  brought 

t> 

the  woman  Jennings  to  testify — the  person  with 
whom  he  was  charged  with  having  committed  adul 
tery.  According  to  the  law  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  there  was  no  difficulty  about  obtaining  the 
divorce,  so  far  as  residence  was  concerned,  as  he 
had  been  a  resident  there  over  a  year,  and  so 
had  I.  He  evidently  was  perfectly  satisfied  with 
the  proceedings,  and  did  not  object  to  them  in 
the  slightest  manner. 

A    REVIVAL    MEETING    USHER. 

After  the  divorce  was  granted  I  did  not  see 
Guiteau  again  until  the  winter  of  1876,  at  which 
time  I  met  him  in  Chicago.  I  went  one  afternoon 
to  the  revival  meetings  that  Moody  and  Sankey 
were  conducting  in  Chicago  that  winter,  and  he 

o  o 

was  acting  as  usher.  I  had  not  known  then  where 
he  was,  but  it  seems  that  he,  at  that  time,  was  or 
pretended  to  be  very  much  interested  in  the  work 
of  Moody  and  Sankey,  and  as  I  subsequently  ascer- 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN. 


tamed,  he  was  a  regular  attendant  at  their  meet 
ings,  apparently  as  enthusiastic  in  that  work  as  he 
had  been  in  politics. 

They  had  different  rooms  in  the  building,  where 
various  meetings  were  conducted  —  for  young  con 
verts,  inquirers,  etc.  —  and  as  I  was  coming  out  of 
the  main  hall,  I  happened  to  look  up,  and  I  saw 
Guiteau  standing  at  the  entrance  to  one  of  those 
rooms,  distributing  tracts,  a  bundle  of  which  he 
held  in  his  hand,  to  the  persons  who  passed  out, 
and  inviting  them  to  go  into  the  prayer  meeting. 
As  I  came  out,  I  looked  at  him  perfectly  straight 
in  the  face,  unconscious  for  the  moment  that  it 
was  he.  I  think  he  recognized  me,  for  as  soon  as 
he  got  a  glimpse  of  me  he  turned  directly  around 
the  other  way.  I  went  down  a  few  steps  and 
turned  for  some  purpose,  and  I  noticed  that  he 
had  gone  into  the  room.  I  presume  he  did  not 
wish  to  come  in  contact  with  me  there. 

SILENCED    BY    MOODY. 

Those  meetings  were  continued  through  the 
winter,  and  he  was  one  of  the  most  earnest 
workers.  He  used  to  address  the  meetings,  and 
became  so  persistent,  and  pestiferous  in  his  efforts 
to  talk  and  converse  with  persons,  that  Mr.  Moody 
at  one  meeting  was  compelled  to  publicly  request 
him  to  keep  quiet,  so  tired  had  they  become  of 
him  and  his  interest  in  the  work.  I  suppose  they 
did  not  place  confidence  in  him,  and  thought  he 
was  doing  the  cause  more  harm  than  good. 


Iog  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

A    CALL    FROM    GUITEAU. 

I  was  living  with  some  friends  in  Chicago,  and  one 
day,  during  that  winter,  I  was  informed  that  a 
stranger  had  called  and  wished  to  see  me.  I  went 
down  i-nto  the  parlor  and  found  it  was  Guiteati. 
When  I  entered  he  extended  his  -hand  and  shook 
hands  with  me  very  pleasantly,  inquired  how  long  I 
had  been  there,  and  where  I  had  been  in  the  mean 
time.  It  was  a  very  severe,  cold  day,  one  of  the  most 
bitter  days  of  the  winter,  and  I  noticed  as  soon  as  I 
came  into  the  room  that  he  wore  no  overcoat  and 
no  gloves,  his  coat  being  a  short  business  coat. 
I  remember  thinking  that  he  certainly  must  be 
cold.  There  was  a  bright  fire  in  the  grate  and  I 
invited  him  to  sit  closer  to  the  fire.  He  talked  in 
a  very  affable  and '  amiable  manner,  and  I  asked 
him  what  he  was  doinof. 

o 

ASPIRING    TO    BE    AN    EVANGELIST. 

He  replied:  "O,  I  have  given  up  the  law  busi 
ness  altogether :  I  am  working  now  for  the  Lord. 
I  have  changed  my  whole  course  of  life,  since  I 
knew  you,  and  I  have  laid  aside  all  old  things, 
and  have  been  working  very  earnestly,  for  some 
time  past,  in  company  with  Moody  and  Sankey, 
and  I  intend,  very  soon,  to  leave  here  and  travel 
in  Europe.  They  are  going  to  such  and  such  a 
place  (mentioning  several  places)  and  I  am  going 
to  work  as  an  evangelist.  I  am  going  to  do  the 
same  work  that  Moody  and  Sankey  are  doing 
here."  I  inquired,  if  Moody  was  going  along 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN. 


with  him,  and  he  said:  "  O,  no.  I  am  engaged 
to  a  lady  of  wealth.  She  is  very  good  and  very 
pretty,  and  beside  all  that,  she  is  a  very  devoted 
Christian-woman,"  and  he  added,  "  she  and  I  are 
going  to  work  together  in  this  cause  —  working 
for  the  Lord."  He  did  not  state  who  this  lady  was. 
I  ascertained  that  he  was  doing  no  business  what 
ever. 

NOT    FEELING    THE    COLD. 

He  several  times  afterward  called  at  the  house 
where  I  was  staying,  and  every  time  he  was  in  the 
same  condition  as  to  dress  ;  and  at  one  of  %these 
visits  —  I  think  the  second  one  —  I  asked  him  why 
he  did  not  wear  an  overcoat,  and  if  he  did  not 
feel  cold  ;  he  said  no,  he  did  not  feel  cold  —  that 
he  did  not  notice  those  things  ;  that  his  mind 
was  not  upon  how  he  felt  ;  that  he  was  en 
gaged  in  other  thoughts  —  or  something  of 
that  kind.  I  thought  his  manners  were  very 
strange,  but  nevertheless,  did  not  think  he  was 
very  different  from  what  he  was  during  my 
married  acquaintance  with  him,  for  he  was  always 
peculiar  and  eccentric  in  many  respects,  and  I 
thought  it  was  merely  a  peculiar  notion  in  not 
wearing  an  overcoat.  Soon  after  that  I  learned 
that  he  had  been  boarding  a  few  blocks  from 
where  I  lived  and  was  greatly  in  debt  for  board,  and 
that  the  people  had  turned  him  out  and  kept  all 
his  clothes,  and  that  was  the  reason  he  did  not 
have  sufficient  clothes.  He  probably  never  was 
10 


j  j  o  MARRIED  LIFE   OF 

able  to  get  the  clothes,  as  he  never  paid  them  his 
board-bill 

AT  MR.  SCOVILLE'S. 

Immediately  following  our  meetings  at  my  resi 
dence,  I  met  Guiteau  again  at  Mr.  Scoville's.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Scoville  sent  for  me  to  come  and  see 
them.  I  had  not  been  in  Chicago  for  several 
years,  and  Mrs.  Scoville,  probably,  wished  to  be 
informed  as  to  how  we  had  lived,  and  the  cause 
of  our  separation,  in  addition  to  other  matters, 
and  I  paid  them  a  visit,  and  remained  there  a 
week.  One  day  he  called,  while  I  was  there,  as 
he  was  accustomed  to  do.  He  would,  sometimes, 
come  to  the  house,  and  stay  a  day,  or  a  night  and 
then  leave,  and  they  would  not  see  him  again, 
probably,  for  two  or  three  weeks.  One  day,  as 
I  have  stated,  he  called,  and  still  looked  in  the 
same  condition — as  if  he  was  suffering  for  clothes, 
ragged,  hungry  and  forlorn.  It  was  Christmas 
time.  I  had  spoken  to  Mrs.  Scoville  about  the 
manner  in  which  he  was  going  about,  appar 
ently  in  need  of  all  the  comforts  of  life,  and  she 
felt  a  great  deal  of  anxiety  about  him,  and  did  not 
know  what  he  was  doing. 

A    STRANGE    ACT, 

I  purchased  a  pair  of  gloves,  and  when  he  called 
that  day,  I  gave  them  to  him,  and  asked  him  to 
wear  them.  He  thanked  me,  and  accepted  them, 
and  seemed  to  appreciate  the  gift  very  much,  but 
said:  "They  are  of  no  use  to  me  really,  because, 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  IIT 

I  have  no  overcoat ;  I  have  no  pocket  to  put  tnem 
in."  He  took  them,  however,  and  after  he  went 
away,  I  remember  that  I  spoke  of  the  circum 
stance  to  Mrs.  Scoville,  and  stated  that  it  was  a 
a  strange  remark  for  him  to  make — that  the 
gloves  were  of  no  use  to  him  because  he  had  no 
pocket  to  put  them  in.  Mr.  Scoville  referred  to 
this  incident  in  his  cross-examination,  and  asked 
me  if  I  did  not  say  that  he  must  be  insane  or  that 
the  remark  was  that  of  an  insane  man.  I  said  no 
such  thing ;  I  merely  said  that  it  was  a  strange 
remark,  it  was  so  foolish. 

VISIT   TO    THE    PRISON. 

Since  our  meeting  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Scoville 
I  never  again  saw  Guiteau  until  the  day  I  ap 
peared  on  the  stand  as  a  witness  at  the  trial,  and 
I  have  had  but  one  conversation  with  him.  Upon 
returning  from  a  drive  to  Arlington  Heights,  on 
the  afternoon  of  Saturday  the  i  /th  of  December, 
1 88 1,  my  husband  suggested  that  we  visit  the  jail 
before  leaving  Washington  for  our  western  home. 
Arriving  at  the  jail,  my  husband  expressed  a  wish 
to  see  the  cell  usually  occupied  by  Guiteau.  War 
den  Crocker  then  informed  the  prisoner  of  our 
presence,  when  he  sent  word  that  he  wanted  to 
see  us  both  and  our  children.  We  were  then  very 
courteously  conducted  by  Warden  Crocker — first, 
to  the  cell  usually  occupied  by  Guiteau,  and  then 
to  another  and  larger  cell  where  the  prisoner  was 
writing.  As  we  entered  the  prisoner  advanced, 


j  j  2  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

shaking  hands  with  us  both,  receiving  us  very  po 
litely.  I  then  inquired  for  his  health,  and  re 
marked  that  he  was  looking  much  thinner  and  a 

o 

great  deal  older  than  when  I  last  met  him.  Gui- 
teau  replied  that  he  was  feeling  well.  He  then 
asked  the  ages  of  my  children  and  stooping, 
kissed  my  three-year-old  boy,  and  then  kissed  my 
little  girl,  whom  I  held  in  my  arms,  and  said  they 
were  nice  little  children.  Some  remarks  were  then 
made  with  reference  to  the  climate  of  Leadville, 
Colorado,  where  we  reside,  and  I  then  inquired  if 
he  had  ever  been  in  Colorado,  and  he  replied  that 
he  had  passed  through  there  when  he  visited  San 
Francisco  some  ten  years  ago.  Mr.  Dunmire,  who 
had  been  standing  near  the  prisoner,  then  said, 
addressing  the  prisoner  in  an  impressive  manner: 
"  Guiteau,  I  am  sorry  to  see  you,  or  any  other  one, 
in  the  condition  you  are  in,"  when  Guiteau,  smil 
ing,  sadly,  said  :  "  The  Almighty  will  protect  me." 
Mr.  Dunmire  then  shook  hands  with  him,  and 
said  :  "  Good-bye,  Guiteau,  it  is  not  likely  we  shall 
meet  again."  The  prisoner  then  asked  me  how  I 
liked  the  West,  and  said  he  was  glad  to  know  I 
was  well  and  comfortably  settled  in  life,  and  said : 
"  Annie,  I  wish  you  much  prosperity ;  I  wish  you 
well."  I  then  shook  hands  with  him,  and  said : 
"  I  am  exceedingly  sorry  to  meet  you  under 
these  sad  circumstances,"  and  then  bade  him  fare 
well.  We  then  quietly  withdrew,  leaving  him 
alone  with  God.  Our  interview  was  strictly 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  jj- 

private,  no  other  visitors   being  present  at  that 
time. 

HABITS    OF    DRESS,    ETC.  * 

Guiteau  was  always  very  proud  and  nice  and 
particular  about  his  dress  and  general  appearance. 
He  always  dressed  well,  wore  the  best  of  every 
thing.  He  would  not  think  that  a  suit  of  clothes 
was  fit  to  wear  that  did  not  cost  at  least  sixty  or 
seventy-five  dollars,  and  he  would  not  wear  any 
thing  that  cost  less.  He  would  frequently  buy  a  suit 
and  pay  part  of  the  purchase  money  and  give  his 
note  for  the  balance  and  never  pay  it. 

In  having  photographs  taken  he  would  be  very 
fastidious  in  his  directions,  saying:  "Now,  I  want 
you  to  be  sure  and  take  a  good  picture  of  me. 
Be  sure  you  get  the  right  expression  of  my  face 
and  eyes,  and  I  think  you  had  better  not  take  a 
side  view — my  nose  is  so  prominent."  He  always 
objected  to  his  profile ;  he  regarded  his  nose  as 
too  long  and  conspicuous,  and  as  spoiling  the  rest 
of  his  face.  We  had  our  photographs  taken 
shortly  after  our  marriage,  when  he  had  a  smooth 
face.  One  of  them  was  produced  at  the  trial 
and  Guiteau  at  once  noticed  the  change  in  his  looks, 
remarking  that  he  had  had  a  hard  road  to  travel 
since  the  taking  of  that  photograph.  When  I 
married  him  he  had  side-whiskers  and  a  mous 
tache.  He  wore  his  hair  long  and  heavy  and  was 
rather  fleshy  when  in  good  health,  and  altogether 
he  was  rather  good-looking — in  strong  contrast 
10* 


i  4 


MARRIED  LIFE  OF 


with  the  haggard  appearance  which  he  presented 
at  the  trial. 

UNTRUTHFULNESS    OF    GUITEAU. 

Guiteau  was  by  no  means  truthful  ;  it  was  impos 
sible  to  believe  anything  he  said  unless  one  knew 
it  to  be  a  fact  from  other  information. 

PLEA    OF    INSANITY. 

Concerning  the  plea  of  insanity  which  has  been 
interposed,  I  place  no  faith  in  it,  and  I  hardly  think 
Mr.  Scoville  has  any  confidence  in  Guiteau's  in 
sanity.  Mrs.  Scoville  is  probably  the  only  one 
who  has  any  sincere  convictions  in  that  respect, 
but  she  seemingly  does  believe,  or  pretends  to 
believe,  that  her  brother  is  insane  and  wholly  irre 
sponsible. 

RELATIONS    OF    SCOVILLE    AND    GUITEAU. 

Mr.  Scoville  is  a  good,  honest  man,  and  has 
acted  with  good  intentions  in  the  trial  of  the  case. 
He,  however,  is  controlled  and  influenced  entirely 
by  his  wife  ;  he  has  to  obey  her  instructions  im 
plicitly.  There  has  never  been  the  slightest  con 
geniality  between  Mr.  Scoville  and  Guiteau,  and 
Guiteau  has  been  tolerated  at  Mr.  Scoville's  house 
only  as  a  brother-in-law.  The  abuse  that  he  has 
heaped  upon  Mr.  Scoville  at  the  trial  is  just  what 
he  has  been  accustomed  to  throw  upon  him  all 
his  life,  and  even  while  sitting  at  Mr.  Scoville's 
table  —  often  calling  him  an  "  idiot,"  "a  consummate 
jackass,"  and  using  similar  epithets  in  speaking 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  jjc 

r 

of  him,  both  out  of  his  presence  and  also  when 
addressing  him  to  his  face. 

WASTE    OF    MONEY. 

As  I  have  before  stated,  I  do  not  think  Guiteau 
ever  made  as  much  money  as  he  pretended  to 
make  in  his  business,  but  I  have  no  doubt  that  he 
spent  a  great  deal  of  what  he  did  receive  in  keep 
ing  lewd  women,  and  in  other  improper  ways, 
although  I  cannot  say  positively  that  he  was  in  the 
habit  of  living  in  that  manner  during  the  time  we 
resided  in  Chicago.  But  in  the  winter  of  1871-72, 
when  we  went  to  New  York,  I  learned  that  that 
was  the  way  he  was  living,  and  from  information 
obtained  afterwards  I  was  convinced  that  he  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  so  living,  almost  continuously, 
all  the  time.  And  in  this  connection,  to  show  his 
reputation  in  this  regard,  and  his  early  character 
generally,  I  may  refer  to  a  communication  which 
was  published  in  the  Washington  Evening  Star, 
of  December  2Oth,  1881.  I  do  not  know  the 
writer,  but  I  have  good  reasons  for  believing  that 
its  statements,  which  follow,  are  true. 

GUITEAU'S    BOYHOOD    DEPRAVITY. 

In  the  Washington  correspondence  of  the  New  York 
Tribune  of  December  i2th  is  a  report  of  an  interview  with 
one  of  the  insanity  experts,  in  which  the  following  passage 
occurs : 

"What  general  consideration  led  you  to  believe  him 
(Guiteau)  sane  ?" 

"Well,  look  at  his  career.  From  his  birth  until  he  was 
sixteen  or  seventeen  years  of  age  his  life  was  that  of  an  ordi- 


n6 


MARRIED  LIFE  OF 


nary,  studious,  quiet  school-boy.  He  did  not,  during  that 
time,  develop  any  unusual  traits  of  wickedness,  and  did  not 
show  that  hereditary  tendency  to  insanity  which  the  defense 
has  attempted  to  prove.  *  *  *  When  he  reached  early 
manhood  his  system  changed  greatly  of  course.  He  has  evi 
dently  been  a  man  of  strong  passions,  and  that  fact  explains 
many  things  in  his  career.  He  did  not  smoke,  chew,  or  swear. 
He  preserved  the  outward  moralities.  He  went  at  an  early 
age  to  the  Oneida  Community,  where  he  aspired  to  be  a 
leader,  which  would  mean  that  he  would  have  exceptional 
liberty.  Leaving  the  Community  because  his  life  did  not  suit 
him,  he  went  to  New  York,  and  ever  since  that  time  has  been 
tending  toward  criminality." 

Mr.  Scoville,  in  his  opening  argument  for  the  defense, 
makes  similar  statements,  and  tries  to  give  the  same  impression 
as  to  the  boyhood  innocence  of  the  prisoner.  He  says : 
"  His  father  was  an  intense  religionist.  He  probably  did  not 
give  that  personal  attention  to  the  boy  that  he  ought  to  have 
given,  and  yet  the  boy  grew  up  bright,  intelligent,  gentle 
manly,  gentle,  loving,  with  no  wayward  ways,  habits  or  acts." 
This  is  the  character  Mr.  Scoville  gives  him  up  to  his  going 
to  Ann  Arbor,  and  finally  to  the  Oneida  Community.  Now, 
is  it  true  that  up  to  his  joining  the  Oneida  Community  Gui- 
teau  had  been  the  immaculate,  gentle  boy  he  is  represented 
to  have  been  in  the  above  extracts  ?  It  is  not  true.  Here  are 
som^  facts  on  the  other  side,  which  paint  a  different  picture 
of  that  boyhood.  Soon  after  he  went  to  the  Oneida  Com 
munity,  his  egotism  and  self-conceit,  which  were  then  of 
enormous  proportions,  subjected  him  to  some  severe  criticism, 
one  result  of  which  was  that  he  made  a  written  confession  of 
his  previous  life.  This  confession  showed  that  he  had  from 
early  years  been  a  very  disobedient  boy  to  his  father ;  that  he 
had,  while  a  clerk  in  a  business  house,  sometime  during  the 
period  from  1854  to  1857,  /.  *.,  from  his  thirteenth  to  his 
seventeenth  year,  robbed  his  employer's  money-drawer  re 
peatedly  of  considerable  sums  of  money ;  that  he  had  fre- 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  j  j  « 

quented  brothels,  and  had  had  venereal  disease,  and  that  he 
had  been  addicted  to  self-abuse  to  the  extent  of  seriously 
injuring  his  health. 

In  regard  to  his  disobedience  toward  his  father,  he  con 
fessed  that  on  one  occasion,  when  he  had  been  refused  some 
request,  he  attacked  his  father,  overpowered  him,  threw  him 
upon  the  floor,  and  held  him  there  till  he  yielded  to  the  de 
mand  made  upon  him. 

This  attack  upon  his  father  was  also  described  to  me  once 
by  his  father  (whom  I  knew  personally  and  quite  intimately 
for  a  score  of  years).  He  represented  his  son  as  having  a 
very  angry  spirit  toward  him,  and  that  he  yielded  to  the 
demand  because  he  feared  that  Charles  might  kill  him  if  he 
did  not — he  felt  that  he  was  dealing  with  a  murderous  spirit. 

The  testimony  of  Luther  W.  Guiteau  as  to  his  son's  char 
acter  was  that  he  had  been  very  disobedient  from  his  early 
years ;  and  I  know  that  one  of  the  great  sorrows  that  the 
father  carried  with  him  to  his  grave  was  that  he  had  found  it 
impossible  to  secure  obedience  in  Charles  during  his  boyhood. 
First  and  last,  he  suffered  more  from  his  wicked  son  than 
President  Garfield  did.  For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury  he  carried  burdens  of  heart  and  mind  about  that  son^ 
which  saddened  his  life  and  made  him  old  before  his  time. 
Happily  he  was  "beyond  the  sorrow  and  the  weeping," 
when  his  son's  crowning  act  of  disobedience  came — disobe 
dience  to  all  that  his  father  had  taught  him,  disobedience  to 
all  authority  and  government,  disobedience  to  God — in  the 
murder  of  the  President. 

One  of  the  objects  of  the  attempt  to  make  it  appear  that 
Guiteau' s  boyhood  was  a  career  of  innocence  up  to  the  time 
of  his  joining  the  Oneida  Community,  apparently  is  to  create 
the  impression  that  his  after  career  of  criminality  was  the 
result  of  his  sojourn  in  the  Community.  The  insanity 
expert  quoted  by  the  New  York  Tribune  gives  that  impres 
sion.  The  drift  of  all  of  Mr.  Scoville's  treatment  of  the  pris 
oner's  connection  with  the  Community  seems  to  give  that 


j  j  g  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

impression.  Nothing  could  be  more  untrue.  The  truth  is, 
that  the  six  years  which  the  assassin  spent  at  the  Community 
— with,  perhaps,  a  brief  period  after  that  time — was  the  one 
oasis  of  comparative  purity  in  his  life  since  puberty — the 
one  period  when  his  passions  were  under  wholesome  restraint, 
when  his  selfishness  was  crucified,  when  he  was  not  drifting 
in  the  direction  of  disobedience  and  "  devilish  depravity." 

T.  L.  P. 
GROUNDS    FOR   DIVORCE. 

The  first  that  I  knew  of  his  being  intimate  with 
women  was,  as  I  say,  during  the  time  of  our  resi 
dence  in  New  York.  There  was  a  woman  living 
in  the  house  where  we  boarded  who  represented 
herself  as  a  widow  of  some  lawyer  from  Chicago, 
and  I  was  made  aware  of  the  fact  that  he  was 
too  intimate  with  her  during  our  stay  in  that  house. 
Throughout  that  year  at  different  times  I  knew  of 
similar  goings  on  that  occurred  with  other  women 
in  New  York  until  some  time  in  the  -fall  of  1873 — 
about  September  or  October — when  I  made  my 
application  for  divorce.  I  was  then  living  in  Phila 
delphia,  and  made  the  application  through  my 
friends  in  that  city. 

A   SERIOUS    ILLNESS. 

In  the  summer  of  1873,  while  I  was  living  with  him 
in  New  York  city,  he  had  a  very  long  illness,  that 
lasted  some  two  months  or  more — between  two  and 
three  months — resulting  from  his  intimacy  with  im 
proper  women  ;  and  I  nursed  him  and  took  care  of 
him  through  that  sickness,  and  no  one  else  knew 
anything  about  it.  He  had  no  physician,  and  would 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  j  JQ 

not  have  one  because  he  did  not  want  any  one  to 
know  his  condition.  He  said  he  would  rather  die 
than  consult  a  doctor  or  have  any  medical  advice, 
for  fear  that  it  might  possibly  get  out  among  busi 
ness  men  that  he  had  been  so  "  unfortunate " 
(thfet  is  the  way  he  seemed  to  look  at  it)  and  in 
jure  his  business.  He  was  a  very  great  sufferer 
and  came  very  near  dying.  We  were  boarding 
at  that  time  in  a  large  boarding-house  and  I  had 
a  fearful  experience  with  him.  He  was  very  much 
reduced  on  account  of  it,  and  in  the  worst  stages 
of  his  illness  he  was  entirely  helpless.  He  was 
not  able  to  attend  to  his  business  or  anything  else, 
and  at  times  I  was  almost  sure  he  would  never 
recover  from  it.  He  had  considerable  business 
on  hand  at  that  time,  and  I  had  to  go  down  to  the 
office  (which  he  then  occupied  with  Mr.  Shaw,) 
every  day  or  two  and  get  his  mail,  and  get  the 
gentlemen  there  to  attend  to  his  cases  for  him — 
matters  that  he  ought  to  attend  to  himself. 

AT    SARATOGA. 

After  that  experience,  as  soon  as  he  recovered, 
I  went  to  Lucerne,  near  Saratoga  Springs,  and 
spent  the  remainder  of  the  summer  with  some 
friends  who  were  living  there,  he  remaining  in 
New  York.  The  latter  part  of  the  summer  these 
friends  gave  me  their  consent  to  invite  him 
to  come  there  and  spend  a  few  weeks.  I  oc 
casionally  heard  from  him,  though  not  very  often, 
his  correspondence  being  very  irregular,  and  I 


120 


MARRIED  LIFE  OF 


wrote,  inviting  him  to  come,  thinking  that  it  might 
benefit  him.  He  came  and  stayed  there  about  two 
weeks,  and  he  then  seemed  to  be  very  much  bet 
ter,  and  to  be  recovering  in  health,  but  still  was 
not  entirely  wrell.  While  he  was  there,  he  was 
suddenly  taken  lame  in  one  of  his  hips,  and  ^as 
badly  crippled.  He  became  so  much  worse  that 
he  wanted  to  go  back  to  New  York  at  once,  his 
excuse  being  that  he  probably  would  get  better  if 
he  could  return  to  that  city.  I  am  very  positive 
that  the  cause  of  his  lameness  was  the  trouble  he 
had  had. 

SEPARATED    FROM    GUITEAU. 

He  went  back  to  New  York.  That  was  the 
latter  part  of  the  summer  of  1873,  the  last  of  my 
acquaintance  with  him  at  that  time ;  I  may  say, 
that  that  was  the  conclusion  of  our  living  to 
gether,  for  from  Lucerne  I  went  to  Philadelphia, 
and  remained  there  until  1874,  having  in  the 
meantime  obtained  the  divorce.  The  next  time 
that  I  met  him  was  in  Chicago,  as  I  have  already 
explained. 

GUITEAU'S    STATE    OF    MIND. 

In  connection  with  his  illness,  I  might  mention 
the  state  of  his  feelings  during  those  weeks.  By 
any  one  who  has  unfortunately  ever  been  com 
pelled  to  bear  with  his  bad  and  uncontrollable 
temper  and  excited,  irritable  disposition,  it  can 
readily  be  understood  what  a  trying  ordeal  I 
passed  through.  He  would  pace  the  room  by 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN. 


the  half-hour  at  a  time,  and  curse  himself  and  the 
rest  of  humanity,  and  would  say  that  as  soon  as 
he  recovered  he  would  shoot  that  woman  who  had 
placed  him  in  this  predicament.  He  never  ex 
pressed  any  regret  for  his  deed,  only  so  far  as 
being  so  unfortunate  was  concerned.  He  in 
formed  me  that  this  woman  was  an  utter  stranger 
to  him,  as  he  never  met  her  until  the  evening  she 
accosted  him  on  the  street,  and  he  admitted  that 
he  was  not  able  to  resist  her  inducements  and 
blandishments.  He  never  said  to  me,  that  he  had 
committed  that  act  in  order  to  get  rid  of  me,  but 
instead  of  that,  he  seemed  to  deplore  his  inability 
to  withstand  such  temptations.  In  fact,  I  never 
heard  him  assert  at  any  time,  until  recently  in 
court,  that  he  committed  adultery  for  the  purpose 
of  ridding  himself  of  me,  his  wife. 

LEFT    TO    SUPPORT    HERSELF. 

For  nearly  a  year  and  a  half  previous  to  our 
final  separation  I  was  absent  among  strangers 
earning  a  support  for  myself,  while  he  was  living 
in  good  style  in  New  York,  boarding  at  expensive 
hotels  and  keeping  women.  He  wrould  tell  me 
that  his  business  would  not  enable  him  to  keep  me 
and  that  I  must  maintain  myself.  I  therefore  had 
to  seek  some  employment,  and  if  not  with  my 
friends  I  would  have  to  go  among  strangers. 
Sometimes  I  was  in  Philadelphia,  at  other  times  at 
Saratoga  Springs,  and  again  at  some  other  place. 
During  these  periods  of  separation,  what  I  suffered 
1  1 


!  2  2  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

mentally  words  can  never  tell.  I  was  a  mere  child 
in  experience,  having  married  at  the  age  of  six 
teen  and  being  naturally  of  a  confiding  nature,  he 
was  everything  to  me.  I  was  true  and  earnest  in 
my  love  for  him  and  mourned  with  a  true  woman's 
intensity  on  account  of  his  misconduct.  I,  how 
ever,  could  not  conceal  from  my  heart  his  corrupt, 
depraved  nature,  and  I  sought  by  every  imagina 
ble  means  to  win  him  over  to  purity,  beseeching 
him  many  times  to  live  a  better  life.  In  reply  to 
my  entreaties  he  appeared  amused  at  my  earnest 
ness  and  would  say  that,  while  he  admired  my 
principle  and  motive,  still  I  was  altogether  too  par 
ticular  and  conscientious  for  everyday  life. 

AN    OCCASION    OF    TENDERNESS. 

The  only  instance  that  he  ever  seemed  really 
sensitive  and  interested  in  my  happiness  was 
immediately  following  a  severe  illness,  when  my 
life  was  despaired  of  and  I  was  in  profound  grief 
at  the  loss  of  our  only  child,  who  died  at  birth,  and 
whose  death  he  knew  was  caused  wholly  by  his 
brutal  treatment  of  its  mother.  At  that  time  he 
would  occasionally  display  a  spark  of  kindness  by 
stroking  my  hair  and  pitying  my  thin,  wearied 
appearance,  and  would  study  my  comfort,  and 
even  bring  me  little  delicacies  and  luxuries.  He 
did  at  such  times  profess  to  regret  his  conduct, 
and  promise,  if  I  would  only  recover,  never  to  act 
unkindly  again. 


GU1TEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN. 


HARD    TO    LIVE    WITH. 

During  the  time  I  lived  with  him,  almost  from 
the  commencement  of  our  married  life,  he  was 
very  peculiar,  very  eccentric  in  many  things  —  so 
much  so  that  it  was  nearly  impossible  for  any  one 
to  live  with  him  with  any  degree  of  comfort  or 
happiness.  Sometimes  he  was  kind,  and  disposed 
to  be  gentle  and  pleasant  and  amiable,  and  then 
again  he  would  be  very  morose  and  irritable,  and 
just  the  opposite  in  every  respect.  He  was  in 
tensely  high-tempered,  and  became  angry  upon 
the  most  trifling  provocation,  or  no  provocation  at 
all  ;  and  it  would  seem  as  if  he  would  lose  all  con 
trol  over  himself. 

NO    SUSPICION    OF    INSANITY. 

In  regard  to  these  peculiarities,  I  often  thought 
he  was  exceedingly  strange,  and  now  understand 
exactly  what  kind  of  disposition  he  possessed.  It 
never  occurred  to  me  that  he  was  not  perfectly 
sensible,  or  that  his  mind  was  affected  in  any 
respect  whatsoever,  or  that  he  was  in  the  least 
insane.  In  fact,  I  never  heard  of  any  of  the 
family  being  affected  with  insanity  ;  I  never  heard 
it  mentioned,  although  I  was  intimate  with  his 
sister  and  the  other  members  of  the  family,  and 
had  been  with  them  at  different  times,  I  never 
heard  anything  of  the  kind  referred  to. 

HIS    EXCITED    TALKS. 

I  did  not  know  until  after  our  marriage  of  his 
having  lived  in  the  Oneida  Community.  He  never 


T  24  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

broached  the  subject  before,  but  he  then  told  me  all 
about  his  going  there  and  how  unfortunate  it  was 
for  him  that  he  ever  did  go  there,  and  he  would 
talk  of  that  perhaps  an  hour  or  more  at  a  time. 
He  would  get  into  that  strain  of  talk  and  become 
very  much  excited.  He  reiterated  over  and  over 
again  that  he  blamed  his  father  for  all  the  difficul 
ties  and  troubles  he  had  experienced,  for  he  at 
tributed  them  all  to  his  experience  in  the  Commu 
nity.  He  said  it  was  the  greatest  curse  that  could 
have  happened  to  him — his  father's  inducing  him 
to  go  there,  and  blamed  him  altogether,  for  it,  re 
peatedly  asserting  that  it  would  have  been  a  bless 
ing  if  his  father  had  died  before  he  himself  was 
old  enough  to  understand  anything  about  those 
things.  He  stated  that  his  father  used  to  talk  of  the 
Community  doctrine  constantly  in  his  family,  and 
that  Noyes  was  an  intimate  friend  and  visited 
them.  That  was  at  the  commencement  or  organ 
ization  of  the  society,  I  presume.  He  also  stated 
that  Mr.  North,  who  testified  at  the  trial,  was  an 
old  friend  of  his  father,  and  he  has  often  said  that 
his  father  took  North's  family  into  his  house  and 
boarded  them  with  the  means  that  he  ought  to 
have  spent  in  sending  him  to  college  and  giving 
him  a  good  education,  just  on  account  of  the 
fanaticism,  as  he  always  termed  it,  that  so  possessed 
his  father  at  that  time. 

WORKINGS    OF    THE    ONEIDA    COMMUNITY. 

He  talked  a  great  deal  about  the  inner  work- 


QUITE  A  U,    THE  ASSASSIN.  j  2  r 

ings  of  the  Community  and  the  dreadful  feeling 
under  which  he  labored  during  his  life  there ;  that 
he  had  lost  all  of  what  he  called  his  "  free-agency :" 
he  said  his  "  free-agency  "  was  entirely  destroyed 
during  his  association  and  connection  with  those 
people,  and  that  he  passed  through  a  terrible  or 
deal  in  that  place ;  that  part  of  the  time,  he 
thought  he  would  be  lost,  according  to  their  teach- 

o  o 

ings,  if  he  left  them,  and  that  he  was  intensely  un 
happy  ;  that  he  could  not  decide  what  was  the 
right  course  for  him  to  pursue,  until  finally  he  re 
solved  that  he  would  leave  them.  He  claimed 
that  he  left  them  in  the  night,  slipping  away  with 
out  letting  them  know  of  his  intentions.  His  ac 
quaintance  with  them  he  always  characterized  as 
the  great  misfortune  of  his  life.  He  dwelt  a  great 
deal  upon  the  meetings  which  they  were  accus 
tomed  to  hold,  wherein  they  would  criticise  each 
other.  That  was  something,  it  seemed,  that  he 
could  not  possibly  stand — when  they  would  bring 
up  himself  and  the  other  members  and  publicly 
criticise  them  for  any  improper  conduct  committed 
by  them.  He  described  that  as  the  worst  feature 
in  the  whole  affair — the  "  terrible  despotism  "  that 
Noyes  exerted  over  the  people ;  he  said  they  had 
no  will  of  their  own  in  any  respect,  that  they  were 
just  like  children  under  the  control  of  that  man 
Noyes.  He  has  publicly  elaborated  those  mat 
ters,  however,  very  fully  in  print  and  otherwise,  so 
that  I  need  not  dwell  upon  them. 


I26  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

AN    UNKIND    HUSBAND. 

His  behavior  and  conduct  toward  me  was  ex 
ceedingly  unkind  during  the  greater  part  of  our 
association  together.  There  were  times  when  he 
was  very  kind  and  genial,  and  would  often  tell  me 
that  he  greatly  regretted  his  treatment,  but  that 
if.  I  would  overlook  the  past  he  would  never  do  it 
again.  Those  instances,  however,  were  rare,  that 
he  expressed  any  feeling  of  remorse,  or  regret, 
or  compunction  for  anything  he  had  done,  no 
matter  how  outrageous  his  misconduct  may  have 
been. 

The  reason  for  his  acting  toward  me  in  that 
cruel  way  I  cannot  explain,  because  I  have  reason 
to  believe  that  he  loved  me  as  much,  probably,  as 
he  is  capable  of  loving  any  one.  But  it  seemed 
as  if  there  was  something  in  his  disposition  that 
was  naturally  ugly;  he  appeared  to  take  a  real 
delight  in  forcing  persons  to  feel  they  were  under 
his  control,  that  he  could  exercise  authority  over 
them,  and  he  always  wanted  me  to  learn  that  he 
was  so  far  superior  to  me  that  I  must  not  express 
or  have  an  idea  or  a  will  of  my  own  ;  that  I  must 
always  live  in  complete  subordination  to  him,  and 
he  would  find  a  great  deal  of  fault  with  me  if  I 
acted  otherwise.  He  would  say:  "You  have  such 
a  terrible  will ;  your  will  was  never  broken  when 
you  were  a  child,  and  the  sooner  you  know  that 
you  are  in  subjection  to  me,  why,  the  better  it  will 
be  for  you." 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN,  I2j 

I  could  mention  many  illustrations  of  his  un 
kind  treatment,  which  was  incomprehensible.  Per 
haps  in  conversing  with  him  about  something,  if  I 
did  not  happen  to  agree  with  him  in  what  he  said 
or  felt  about  the  subject,  or  dared  to  express  an 
opinion  in  the  slightest  degree  antagonistic  to  his 
own,  he  would  instantaneously  become  angry,  and 
if  I  were  to  talk  any  longer  he  would  become  per 
fectly  furious.  Many  times,  while  in  such  moods, 
when  I  have  not  knowingly  offended  him,  he  has 
taken  hold  of  me  suddenly  (he  had  great  strength 
in  his  arms  and  hands),  opened  the  door  perhaps, 
wherever  we  might  be  boarding,  and  kicked  me 
ri^ht  out  into  the  hall  and  fastened  me  there.  It 

o 

made  no  difference  who  was  out  there,  or  who  was 
passing  along  the  hall ;  it  would  have  made  no 
difference  if  I  had  fallen  down-stairs  from  the  kick 
or  push.  I  do  not  think  he  would  have  opened  the 
door  to  have  seen  whether  I  had  fallen  down  and 
broken  my  neck  or  not.  At  these  times  he  seemed 
devoid  of  all  sensibility. 

During  our  residence  in  Chicago,  one  incident 
occurred  which  was  repeated  a  number  of  times, 
where  in  the  night,  he  actually  pulled  me  out 
of  bed  and  shoved  me  out  into  the  hall.  In  one 
place  where  we  boarded,  there  was  a  large  closet 
in  the  hall  belonging  to  the  room  occupied  by  us, 
which  we  used  for  the  storage  of  our  baggage  and 
other  articles,  and  on  cold  winter  nights  he  would 
take  me  and  push  me  out  into  that  closet  and  keep 


I2g  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

me  there  all  night  in  the  cold.  Of  course  I  did 
not  dare  to  make  any  noise,  because  I  did  not 
want  any  one  else  in  the  house  to  know  anything 
about  it.  I  never  wanted  anybody  to  know  these 
troubles.  I  had  too  much  pride  and  preferred  to 
keep  them  to  myself.  He  would  sometimes  keep 
me  in  the  closet  until  morning,  and  go  back  to  bed 
and  probably  go  to  sleep  and  let  me  remain  there, 
and  when  perhaps  it  suited  his  convenience,  he 
would  come  and  unfasten  the  door  and  let  me 
return  to  the  room  again.  And  he  did  not  seem 
to  regard  such  conduct  as  in  any  wise  out  of  the 
way,  and  when  I  would  say:  "Why,  I  don't  see 
what  you  can  think  of  it,  acting  in  such  a  way,  and 
treating  me  as  you  do  !  I  certainly  shall  not  live 
with  you  or  continue  to  put  up  with  it,"  he  would 
retort :  "  Well,  nothing  would  suit  me  better. 
When  you  make  up  your  mind  to  find  other  quar 
ters,  the  better  it  will  suit  me,  for  you  are  not  the 
kind  of  a  woman  that  I  should  have  married  any 
way.  I  want  somebody  who  could  help  me.  If 
I  had  married  a  girl  who  had  money — whose 
father,  for  instance,  or  some  one  belonging  to  the 
family  had  means,  and  could  have  helped  me — it 
would  have  been  a  different  thing.  But  you  are 
poor ;  you  have  no  one  who  can  help  you,  who- 
perhaps,  could  give  you  a  meal  if  you  wanted  it, 
and  I  have  no  business  with  a  woman  like  you. 
You  are  good  enough  and  kind  enough,  but  I 
made  a  great  mistake  when  I  married  you." 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  12~ 

That  was  generally  his  excuse  for  his  treatment. 
He  had  an  idea  that  if  I  were  out  of  the  way,  he 
could  then  marry  some  one  who  could  help  him. 
He  said  that  he  was  destined  to  occupy  a  pro 
minent  position  in  life,  and  he  wanted  a  wife  who 
would  be  an  assistance  to  him  in  that  respect. 

MARRIED    LIFE    MADE    MISERABLE. 

This  conduct  was  repeated,  time  and  time  again, 
until  I  became  mentally  crushed  ;  my  life  was  sad 
dened  ;  I  got  into  the  habit  of  constantly  feeling 
so  distressed,  and  so  unhappy,  that  I  would  rather 
have  died  than  lived.  Existence  was  a  perfect 
agony  to  me,  nearly  all  the  period  of  our  married 
relations.  My  acquaintance  with  him  began,  of 
course,  when  I  was  much  younger  than  I  am  now, 
and  I  loved  him  a  great  deal,  and  I  was  willing  to 
suffer  anything,  everything,  rather  than  be  separ 
ated  from  him ;  I  looked  upon  a  divorce  and 
separation  as  a  terrible  thing  then,  and  I  felt  that 
it  was  my  duty  to  live  with  him,  and  to  bear  these 
troubles  just  as  long  as  I  possibly  could.  Many 
times  I  used  to  think  that  the  difficulties  and  sor 
rows  to  which  I  had  to  submit,  were  almost  more 
than  I  could  bear ;  yet  I  felt  that  the  time  would 
come,  when  I  would  be  released  in  some  way.  I 
knew  that  my  unhappiness  was  something  that  I 
had  not  caused,  that  it  was  one  of  those  mys 
terious  things,  that  I  could  not  explain.  I,  there 
fore,  continued  to  endure  it,  and  be  as  patient 
under  it  as  I  could. 


1 3o 


MARRIED  LIFE  OF 


I  frequently  had  conversations  with  him  on  the 
subject,  and  talked  with  him  about  the  way  he  was 
living,  and  told  him  that  I  thought  there  was  much 
inconsistency  in  his  life,  that  he  was  not  acting  ac 
cording  to  his  professions ;  for,  all  this  while,  he 
made  a  profession  of  religion.  He  was  a  constant 
attendant  upon  all  the  means  of  grace;  he  was 
connected  with  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso 
ciation,  both  in  Chicago  and  in  New  York,  and 
always  referred  to  such  matters  with  so  much  re 
spect  and  feeling  as  to  cause  a  stranger  to  think 
he  was  one  of  the  most  excellent  and  exemplary 
of  men. 

In  talking  with  him,  I  often  told  him  and  warned 
him  that  I  believed — in  fact,  that  I  was  almost  sure 
— that  if  he  continued  to  live  in  the  way  in  which 
he  was  living,  something  terrible  would  happen ; 
that  he  would  surely  suffer  for  his  conduct  toward 
me  alone,  to  say  nothing  of  anything  else;  that  I 
was  confident  that  if  he  did  not  reform,  he  eventu 
ally  would  go  either  to  the  gallows  or  to  the  peni 
tentiary — to  one  place  or  the  other.  He  would 
invariably  turn  off  all  reference  to  this  subject, 
as  lightly  as  possible,  and  attempt  to  make  some 
justification  for  what  he  had  done,  and  say;  "Well, 
I  would  not  treat  you  as  I  do,  or  would  not  be  as 
harsh  as  I  am,  if  you  would  not  be  so  self-willed; 
if  you  would  be  more  submissive,  and  willing  to 
be  controlled  by  me,  I  would  not  treat  you  as  I 
do."  That  was  the  sole  excuse  he  would  offer. 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  j^i 

Whenever  I  talk  about  these  matters  the  re 
membrance  always  works  upon  my  spirits,  and  I 
cannot  talk  about  my  life  with  him,  even  to  this 
day,  without  its  affecting  me,  and  my  experience 
apparently  changed  my  whole  life;  it  had  so  de 
pressing  an  effect  upon  my  disposition  that  I  never 
after  it  felt  as  I  did  before  marriage.  I  used  to  be 
very  cheerful,  was  naturally  very  buoyant  and 
hopeful,  and  could  undertake  almost  anything;  but 
the  systematic  course  of  unkind  treatment  that  I 
endured  as  his  wife,  completely  changed  and 
revolutionized  my  feelings,  and  I  had  no  hope  or 
desire  for  anything — but  was  utterly  dejected  and 
depressed. 

DELIBERATELY    WICKED. 

With  regard  to  his  character  in  private  life,  I 
doubt,  if  there  has  ever  been  an  instance  of  a  man 
who  was  so  wonderfully  (I  hardly  know  how  to 
express  it,  other  than  as  I  have  often  thought  and 
said  that  he  used  to  be)  possessed  of  an  evil 
spirit.  He  was  entirely  conscious  of  what  he  was 
doing.  He  was  never  under  the  influence  of 
liquor — he  could  not  account  for  it  on  the  ground 
of  drunkenness.  He  was  perfectly  sensible  and 
cool,  and  deliberate  in  everything  he  did,  and  I 
therefore  think  he  could  control  himself  when 
ever  he  wanted  to  do  so. 

CONDUCT   AT    THE    TRIAL. 

I  do  not  know  much  about  the  proceedings  of 
the  trial  except  what  I  have  read  in  the  press.  I 


132 


MARRIED  LIFE  OF 


attended  only  when  I  was  on  the  witness-stand, 
but  from  my  observations,  the  days  I  was  in  court, 
I  do  not  think  there  was  anything  in  his  conduct 
different  from  my  personal  experience  with  him. 
Whenever  he  would  talk  at  a  table  and  be  contra 
dicted,  he  would  pound  the  table,  and  pound,  and 
pound,  and  say:  "It  isn't  so!  It  isn't  so  !"  just  as 
he  does  in  court.  As  to  the  discrepancy  between 
his  conduct  at  the  jail  and  his  conduct  at  the 
court-house,  he  could  change  his  behavior  just  as 
much,  and  just  as  quickly  as  that,  when  I  knew  him. 
He  has  made  the  same  remarks  in  court  to 
Mr.  Scoville,  almost  word  for  word,  that  I  have 
heard  him  make  at  other  times  about  that  gentle 
man,  and  to  his  face.  He  has  talked  to  him  in 
that  abusive  manner  before — perhaps  not  so  vio 
lently  as  he  has  done  at  the  trial,  but  just  about 
the  same  way,  in  regard  to  his  having  no  ability 
as  a  lawyer,  and  that  he  was  a  stupid  and  con 
summate  jackass  ;  and  that  was  the  way  he  was  in 
the  habit  of  talking  to  other  persons  about  Mr.  Sco 
ville,  with  reference  to  his  business  qualifications. 
He  would  say:  "he  has  not  a  particle  of  judg 
ment — never  had.  He  has  no  experience  in  law. 
He  is  no  lawyer.  All  he  is  fit  for  is  to  examine 
titles  to  property  and  such  things." 

CONTEMPT    FOR    LABOR. 

He  never  would  work — that  is,  do  manual  la 
bor  ;  he  looked  upon  persons  who  did  so,  as 
amounting  to  nothing  at  all.  He  thought  it  en- 


CUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN. 


133 


tirely  beneath  the  dignity  of  any  man  who  pro 
fessed  to  be  a  lawyer,  or  minister,  or  physician, 
to  do  any  work  at  all,  and  that  was  one  reason 
why  he  regarded  Mr.  Scoville  with  so  much  con 
tempt.  Mr.  Scoville  was  very  active  and  ener 
getic,  and  about  his  house  he  would  often  do  work 
that  was  ^necessary  to  be  done,  both  inside  and 
outside,  if  the  family  did  not  havejielp.  Guiteau 
frequently  referred  to  this  and  used  to  say  that 
Mr.  Scoville  was  of  no  account,  or  apply  to 
him  some  contemptuous  term. 

Mr.  Scoville  excited  Guiteau's  animosity  by  try 
ing  to  induce  him  to  go  into  some  other  business, 
to  get  a  clerkship  somewhere  or  into  any  other 
pursuit  where  he  would  have  a  salary,  and  whether 
large  or  not,  he  would  know  what  he  had  to  de- 

o 

pend  upon.  Mr.  Scoville  told  him  that  he  did  not 
think  that  he  would  ever  make  a  lawyer,  and  that 
would  put  him  in  a  white-heat  of  anger — the 
slightest  insinuation  from  Mr.  Scoville  that  he 
never  would  succeed  at  the  law,  and  that  the 
sooner  he  came  to  that  conclusion  the  better,  as 
he  had  no  legal  ability  and  never  could  succeed 
in  that  profession.  This  was  one  of  the  causes  of 
•  his  bitter  feelings  against  Mr.  Scoville.  But  it 
was  perfectly  useless  to  attempt  to  induce  him  to 
go  into  any  other  business  than  that,  for  he  would 
not  think  of  accepting  a  position  where  he  would 
be  under  the  control  of  another  ;  he  would  never 
consent  to  that. 

12 


j  2  A  MARRIED  LIFE  OF 

NOT    INSANE. 

In  view  of  all  these  facts  that  I  know  so  well, 
when  I  have  been  asked  so  many  times  since  the 
perpetration  of  this  crime  whether  I  thought  him 
insane,  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  answer  any 
other  way  than  in  the  negative,  that  I  did  not  be 
lieve  him  to  be  insane,  at  least  at  the  time  I  knew 
him.  And  now,  since  I  have  been  in  Washington 
and  have  seen  him  and  become  conversant  with 
the  manner  in  which  he  deports  himself  every  day 
in  court,  and  at  other  times  when  in  jail,  I  do  not 
see  that  there  is  any  difference  between  his  con 
duct  now  and  his  conduct  when  I  lived  with  him. 
It  may  be  that  he  is  a  little  worse,  if  anything — 
more  violent  in  his  actions  and  demeanor,  but  that 
is  probably  due  to  the  condition  and  change  in 
which  he  knows  he  is  placed,  and  also  to  fear.  And 
I  presume  it  exasperates  him  to  have  the  wit 
nesses  on  behalf  of  the  prosecution  brought  up  to 
him,  face  to  face,  where  he  knows  so  well  that  he 
must  listen  to  their  statements — statements  which 
I  have  no  doubt  are  strictly  true.  Many  of  those 
witnesses  I  have  met  and  know  personally,  and 
also  know  of  his  having  transactions  with  them 

o 

that  were  not  square  and  honest  on  his  part.  For 
instance,  take  the  case  of  Mr.  Shaw,  the  witness 
to  whom  I  have  several  times  referred,  and  upon 
whom  the  prisoner  heaped  especial  abuse.  I  know 
that  Mr.  Shaw  was  probably  one  of  the  best  friends 
Guiteau  ever  had  in  his  life ;  he  has  given  him 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN.  j^ 

money  repeatedly  in  sums  of  twenty-five  and  fifty 
dollars  at  a  time,  and  sometimes  more,  which  he 
never  repaid. 

I  presume  Guiteau  does  not  know  how  much 
he  does  owe  him,  for  money  borrowed  and  due 
for  office-rent  during  the  time  he  shared  Mr. 
Shaw's  office  with  him. 

WATCHFUL    AGAINST   VIOLENCE. 

All  the  time  he  lived  in  New  York  he  carried  a 
cane — a  small  black  cane  with  a  large  round  head 
— one  of  those  loaded  canes.  I  remember  when 
he  purchased  it.  He  brought  it  home  and  ex 
plained  it  to  me,  and  said  if  a  person  were  to 
strike  another  one,  at  a  certain  place  on  the  head 
—the  temple  I  presume — it  would  result  in  instant 
death.  "  But,"  he  added,  "  I  am  liable  to  a  fine  if 
it  should  become  known  I  carried  such  a  cane."  I 
asked :  "  Well,  why  do  you  want  to  carry  such  a 
cane  ?"  and  he  answered ;  "  Well,  if  I  were  to  be 
attacked  by  anybody  I  could  turn  around  and 
strike  him  and  kill  him,  and  I  could  disappear  and 
no  one  would  find  it  out."  I  asked  him  if  he  had 
any  apprehensions  that  he  would  be  attacked,  and 
he  said :  "  I  don't  know  but  that  one  of  those 
mean,  dirty,  low-lived  whelps  "  as  he  termed  his 
clients  and  other  creditors,  "  might  try  to  get  even 
with  me,  and  it  is  best  for  a  man  to  be  on  his 
guard,  so  that  in  case  of  an  attack  at  night  by 
any  one,  I  can  turn  around  and  give  him  a  hit  that 
will  kill  him." 


136 


MARRIED  LIFE  OF 


He  never  left  the  house  without  that  cane  ;  he 
habitually  carried  that  cane  back  and  forth  between 
his  office  and  the  house.  He  was  not  accustomed 
to  do  so  in  Chicago,  and  I  therefore  concluded 
that  he  did  it  in  order  to  protect  himself.  In  fact 
he  is  a  great  coward  and  very  easily  frightened, 
and  if  he  feels  that  he  is  in  danger  of  having  his 
bad  deeds  detected,  he  will  instantly  concoct  some 
measure  to  save  himself. 

A    COWARDLY    MAN. 

In  illustration  of  his  cowardice,  I  might  refer  to 
another  circumstance  which  may  not  generally  be 
understood.  His  violent  threats  in  court  to  pub 
licly  abuse  me  if  I  testified  against  him,  are  no 
doubt  notorious,  and  it  may  have  been  a  surprise 
to  many  to  learn  that,  when  I  did  testify,  his  man 
ners  were  diametrically  opposite  from  what  was 
expected.  This  was  not  owing  to  kindness  of 
feeling  or  magnanimity  on  his  part,  but  was  the 
submission  of  abject  cowardice,  as  the  following 
facts  will  illustrate: 

A  few  days  before  I  came  on  the  stand,  it  was  cir 
culated  in  the  press,  and  elsewhere,  that  it  would  be 
quke  an  ordeal  for  me  to  pass  through  his  fire  of 
falsehoods  and  insinuations,  and  my  husband,  Mr. 
Dunmire,  was  asked  by  some  one  at  the  court 
house,  in  the  presence  of  several  persons,  whether 
he  did  not  dislike  to  have  his  wife  subjected  to 
such  treatment.  Mr.  Dunmire,  in  a  business-like 
manner,  remarked  that  he  knew  the  nature  of  the 


GUITEAU,   THE  ASSASSIN. 


137 


prisoner,  and  that  if  the  Court  would  permit  him 
to  stand  at  my  side  during  the  delivery  of  my 
testimony,  with  a  revolver  in  his  hand — loaded  or 
unlbaded — he  would  guarantee  that  Guiteau  would 
not  dare  to  say  anything  against  me.  His  words 
were  of  no  significance,  merely  an  off-hand  re 
mark  of  what  he  would  like  to  do,  but  that  remark 
was  communicated  to  Guiteau  by  a  member  of  his 
family,  with  exaggerated  additions.  He  was  told 
that  his  former  wife  had  married  again,  and  that 
her  present  husband  was  a  Western  man  who 
came  from  a  place  where  a  human  life  was  re 
garded  as  of  no  consequence,  and  that  he  would 
be  in  attendance  while  his  wife  should  be  upon 
the  witness-stand,  and  would  see  that  she  was  sub 
jected  'to  no  indignity  or  insult.  This  warning  had 
its  effect,  and  when  I  appeared  on  the  stand  with 
my  husband  standing  by  my  side,  Guiteau  evi 
dently  appreciated  the  force  of  what  he  had  heard, 
and  abstained  from  the  bombardment  of  excoria 
tion  which  he  had  threatened  against  me. 

o 
CONCLUSION. 

Truly,  God  leads  us  through  ways  which  we 
would  not  choose  and  over  rough  and  stony 
ground,  but  it  is  sweet  to  know  and  feel  that  His 
hand  is  leading  us,  and  that  all  will  be  well. 


J2! 


THE  TRIAL 

OF 

CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

THE  ASSASSIN  OF 

PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

SATURDAY,  July  2d,  1881,  was  as  fair  a  day 
as  comes  with  an  American  summer. 
Though  the  heat  was  somewhat  noticeable 
in  Washington,  as  in  most  cities,  the  sun  that 
gilded  the  dome  of  the  Capitol,  and  stole  softly 
into  the  awakening  streets,  was  not  unkindly  in 
its  fervor.  At  the  White  House  that  morning  the 
President  was  early  astir.  He  had  many  matters 
that  needed  attention  before  he  left  the  city,  which 
he  intended  to  do  on  an  early  train. 

He  was  going  to  attend  the  commencement  ex 
ercises  of  his  Alma  Mater,  Williams  College, 
Williamstown,  Massachusetts.  There  had  been 
arranged,  in  connection  with  this  visit,  a  some 
what  extended  trip  through  Vermont,  New  Hamp 
shire  and  Massachusetts.  The  President  had 
looked  forward  to  the  trip  with  eagerness  and 
delight,  and  in  view  of  it  had  been  in  the  best  of 
spirits. 

Breakfast  was  over,  and  Secretary  Elaine  had 
come  to  accompany  the  President  to  the  station. 
A  few  last  words,  and  the  carriage  started  rapidly 
for  the  station  of  the  Baltimore  and  Potomac  Rail 
road,  at  Sixth  and  B  Streets.  The  President  was 

(140 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


in  the  best  of  humor,  and  chatted  with  many  a 
light-hearted  laugh.  The  station  was  soon  reached 
and  the  carriage  halted  at  the  B  Street  entrance. 
As  the  carriage  drove  up  to  the  door,  the  Presi 
dent  asked  Officer  Kearney,  who  was  on  duty 
there  : 

"  How  much  time  have  I  ?" 

"About  ten  minutes,  sir,"  was  the  reply, 
whereupon  the  President  and  Secretary  Elaine 
continued  their  conversation.  After  about  five 
minutes  they  were  warned  that  they  must  be 
moving.  They  alighted  from  the  carriage  and 
passed  quietly  through  the  door  into  the  ladies' 
room. 

There  was  no  crowd  about.  There  was  nothing 
stirring,  nothing  of  note,  nothing  to  attract  atten 
tion.  Most  of  those  who  were  to  take  the  train 
were  already  on  board.  Of  those  in  the  room 
beside  the  railroad  officials,  there  was  a  slender, 
light-complexioned  man,  about  forty  years  of  age, 
who  walked  up  and  down  rather  nervously,  occa 
sionally  glancing  out  of  the  door  in  a  vacant 
fashion,  as  if  his  mind  was  bent  upon  some 
strangely  fascinating  picture.  This  man  was 
Charles  Julius  Guiteau.  He  had  been  noticed  by 
the  railroad  employes,  but  his  was  not  a  face,  or  a 
figure,  that  would  attract  special  attention. 

He  walked  up  and  down  with  short,  irregular 
steps.  He  had  just  reached  the  end  of  the  room 
as  the  President  entered  arm  in  arm  with  his 


ASSASSIA*  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


Secretary.  Guiteau  turned  about  and  inserted 
his  hand  within  his  pocket.  The  President  passed 
beyond  him,  he  advanced  one  step,  drew  a  heavy 
revolver  from  his  pocket,  pointed  it  steadily  and 
fired  deliberately  at  the  man  he  had  come  to 
murder. 

The  President  made  no  sign  that  he  was  hurt, 
but  turned  with  a  surprised  look  to  see  from 
whence  the  bullet  came.  Secretary  Elaine  sprang 
to  one  side,  Guiteau  re-cocked  his  revolver  and 
fired  again.  The  President  fell  to  the  floor,  the 
blood  spurting  profusely  from  a  jagged  wound  in 
his  side.  Guiteau  fled.  The  pistol  was  dropped 
and  the  smoke  of  the  powder  drifted  upward  to 
the  ceiling. 

A  terrible  deed  had  been  done.  Assassination 
a  second  time  had  stricken  the  Chief  Magistrate 
of  the  nation.  For  an  instant  those  nearest  to 
him  could  not  believe  their  senses.  Then  ensued 
a  moment  of  terrible  agony  and  confusion.  Secre 
tary  Elaine  sprang  after  the  assassin,  who,  finding 
his  way  barred  in  one  direction,  turned  in  another 
only  to  run  into  the  arms  of  the  law. 

By  this  time  had  gathered  about  the  wounded 
man  a  horror-stricken  crowd.  Secretary  Elaine, 
Secretary  Windom,  Secretary  Hunt,  Postmaster- 
General  James,  and  others  were  busy  sending 
hither  and  thither  messengers  and  messages  for 
doctors.  A  local  physician  was  first  to  arrive. 
He  came  in  breathless,  in  response  to  the  awful 


144  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GLJITEAU, 

summons,  just  as  a  mattress  was  brought  on  jvhich 
to  lay  the  wounded  man.  The  room  being  un 
comfortably  crowded  with  men — in  whose  eyes 
stood  tears,  gathered  in  the  first  pause  of  their 
terror  to  offer  any,  every  aid  in  their  power — it 
was  decided  to  remove  the  President  to  the  room 
above. 

Within  a  few  moments,  Dr.  Bliss  and  several 
other  physicians  arrived.  A  minute's  inspection 
of  the  wound  demonstrated  that  the  President 
was  terribly  wounded.  It  was  imperative  that  he 
should  be  removed  to  the  White  House,  where 
he  could  receive  every  attention.  An  ambulance 
was  speedily  summoned.  The  President  was 
brought  down  stairs,  and  laid  within  it.  The  doc 
tors  got  in,  and  the  horses  started  at  a  dead  run 
for  the  Executive  Mansion,  which  was  reached  in 
less  than  ten  minutes.  Then  began  the  treatment 
with  which  the  public  became  so  familiar,  but 
which,  alas !  failed  to  rescue  its  beloved  object 
from  the  grave.  Details  of  this  treatment  need 
not  be  stated  here.  Testimony  concerning  it  will 
appear  beyond. 

The  life  and  doings  of  the  assassin  are  fully  ex 
posed  in  the  narrative  of  the  trial.  A  summary 
sketch  of  it,  however,  will  enable  the  reader  to 
start  with  a  better  understanding  of  the  man. 
Charles  J.  Guiteau  is  about  forty  years  of  age, 
and  of  French  descent.  He  is  five  feet  five  inches 
in  height,  has  a  sandy  complexion,  and  is  slender, 


ASSASSM  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  145 

weighing  not  more  than  125  pounds.  He  wears 
a  mustache  and  thin  chin  whiskers,  slightly  tinged 
with  gray.  His  sunken  cheeks  and  widely-sepa 
rated  eyes  give  him  a  sullen  appearance.  Nomi 
nally,  he  is  a  lawyer,  although  it  does  not  appear 
that  he  ever  had  any  very  desirable  or  extensive 
practice.  His  reputation  was  bad  wherever  he 
went. 

The  following  letter  was  found  upon  Guiteau 
after  his  arrest  : 

July  2d,  1881. 
To  the  Whi-e  House  : 

The  President's  tragic  death  was  a  sad  necessity,  but  it  will 
unite  the  Republican  party,  and  save  the  Republic.  Life  is  a 
flimsy  dream,  and  it  matters  little  when  one  goes.  A  human 
life  is  of  small  value.  During  the  war  thousands  of  brave 
boys  went  down  without  a  tear. 

I  presume  the  President  was  a  Christian,  and  that  he  will 
be  happier  in  Paradise  than  here.  It  will  be  no  worse  for  Mrs. 
Garfield,  dear  soul,  to  part  with  her  husband  this  way  than 
by  natural  death.  He  is  liable  to  go  at  any  time,  anyway. 
I  had  no  ill-will  toward  the  President.  His  death  was  a 
political  necessity. 

I  am  a  lawyer,  a  theologian,  and  a  politician.  I  am  a 
Stalwart  of  the  Stalwarts.  I  was  with  General  Grant  and  the 
rest  of  our  men,  in  New  York,  during  the  canvass.  I  have 
some  papers  for  the  press,  which  I  shall  leave  with  Byron 
Andrews,  and  his  co-journalists,  at  1420  New  York  Avenue, 
where  all  the  reporters  can  see  them.  I  am  going  to  the 
jail.  CHARLES  GUITEAU. 

The  following  letter  was  found  on  the  street 
soon  after  Guiteau's  arrest,  with  the  envelope  un- 


146  TRIAL    OF  CHARLES  J.    GUITEAU, 

sealed,  and  addressed,  "  Please  deliver  at  once  to 
General  Sherman,  or  his  first  assistant  in  charge 
of  the  War  Department:" 

To  General  Sherman  : 

I  have  just  shot  the  President.  I  shot  him  several  times, 
as  I  wished  him  to  go  as  easily  as  possible.  His  death  was  a 
political  necessity.  I  am  a  lawyer,  theologian  and  politician. 
I  am  a  Stalwart  of  the  Stalwarts.  I  was  with  General  Grant 
and  the  rest  of  our  men,  in  New  York  during  the  canvass. 
I  am  going  to  the  jail.  Please  order  out  your  troops,  and 
take  possession  of  the  jail  at  once. 

Very  respectfully,  CHARLES  GUITEAU. 

i 

Further  light  was  thrown  upon  Guiteau  and 
his  terrible  deed,  by  District-Attorney  Corkhill, 
who,  after  a  patient  investigation,  extending  over 
several  weeks,  issued  the  following  statement : 

The  interest  felt  by  the  public  in  the  details  of  the 
assassination,  and  the  many  stories  published,  justify  me  in 
stating  that  the  following  is  a  correct  and  accurate  statement 
concerning  the  points  to  which  reference  is  made:  The 
assassin,  Charles  Guiteau,  came  to  Washington  city  on  Sunday 
evening,  March  6th,  1881,  and  stopped  at  the  Ebbitt  House, 
remaining  only  one  day.  He  then  secured  a  room  in  another 
part  of  the  city,  and  had  boarded  and  roomed  at  various 
places,  the  full  details  of  which  I  have.  On  Wednesday, 
May  i8th,  1881,  the  assassin  determined  to  murder  the  Presi 
dent.  He  had  neither  money  nor  pistol  at  the  time.  About 
the  last  of  May  he  went  into  O'Meara's  store,  corner  of 
Fifteenth  and  F  Streets,  this  city,  and  examined  some  pistols, 
asking  for  the  largest  calibre.  He  was  shown  two  similar  in 
calibre,  and  only  different  in  the  price.  On  Wednesday, 
June  8th,  he  purchased  a  pistol,  for  which  he  paid  $10,  he 


OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.          IAJ 

having,  in  the  meantime,  borrowed  $15  of  a  gentleman  in  this 
city,  on  the  plea  that  he  wanted  to  pay  his  board  bill.  On 
the  same  evening,  about  7  o'clock,  he  took  the  pistol  and 
went  to  the  foot  of  Seventeenth  Street,  and  practiced  firing  at 
a  board,  firing  ten  shots.  He  then  returned  to  his  boarding 
place  and  wiped  the  pistol  dry,  and  wrapped  it  in  his  coat, 
and  waited  his  opportunity.  On  Sunday  morning,  June  I5th, 
he  was  sitting  in-  Lafayette  Park,  and  saw  the  President  leave 
for  the  Christian  Church  on  Vermont  Avenue,  and  he  at  once 
returned  to  his  room,  obtained  his  pistol,  put  it  in  his  pocket, 
and  followed  the  President  to  church.  He  entered  the  church, 
but  found  he  could  not  kill  him  there  without  danger  of 
killing  some  one  else.  He  noticed  that  the  President  sat 
near  a  window.  After  church  he  made  an  examination  of  the 
window,  and  found  he  could  reach  it  without  any  trouble,  and 
that  from  this  point  he  could  shoot  the  President  through  the 
head  without  killing  any  one  else.  The  following  Wednesday 
he  went  to  the  church,  examined  the  location  and  the  window, 
and  became  satisfied  he  could  accomplish  his  purpose.  He 
determined  to  make  the  attempt  at  the  church  the  following 
Sunday.  Learning  from  the  papers  that  the  President  would 
leave  the  city  on  Saturday,  the  iSth  of  June,  with  Mrs.  Gar- 
field,  for  Long  Branch,  he,  therefore,  decided  to  meet  him  at 
the  depot.  He  left  his  boarding  place  about  5  o'clock  Saturday 
morning,  June  iSth,  and  went  down  to  the  river  at  the  foot 
of  Seventeenth  Street,  and  fired  five  shots  to  practice  his  aim, 
and  be  certain  his  pistol  was  in  good  order.  He  then  went 
to  the  depot,  and  was  in  the  ladies'  waiting-room  of  the 
depot,  with  his  pistol  ready,  when  the  presidential  party 
entered.  He  says  Mrs.  Garfield  looked  so  weak  and  frail  that 
he  had  not  the  heart  to  shoot  the  President  in  her  presence, 
and,  as  he  knew  he  would  have  another  opportunity,  he  left 
the  depot.  He  had  previously  engaged  a  carriage  to  take  him 
to  the  jail.  On  Wednesday  evening,  the  President  and  his 
son,  and  I  think,  United  States  Marshal  Henry,  went  out  for 
a  ride.  The  assassin  took  his  pistol  and  followed  them,  and 


148  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

watched  them  for  some  time,  in  hopes  the  carriage  would 
stop,  but  no  opportunity  was  given.  On  Friday  evening, 
July  ist,  he  was  sitting  on  the  seat  in  the  park  opposite  the 
White  House,  when  he  saw  the  President  come  out  alone.  He 
followed  him  down  the  avenue  to  Fifteenth  Street,  and  then 
kept  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street  upon  Fifteenth,  until 
the  President  entered  the  residence  of  Secretary  Blame.  He 
waited  at  the  corner  of  Fifteenth  and  H  Streets  for  some  time, 
and  then,  as  he  was  afraid  he  would  attract  attention,  he 
went  into  the  alley  in  the  rear  of  Mr.  Morton's  residence, 
examined  his  pistol  and  waited.  The  President  and  Secretary 
Elaine  came  out  together,  and  he  followed  over  to  the  gate  of 
the  White  House,  but  could  get  no  opportunity  to  use  his 
weapon.  On  the  morning  of  Saturday,  July  2d,  he  break 
fasted  at  the  Riggs  House  about  7  o'clock.  He  then  walked 
up  into  the  park,  and  sat  there  for  an  hour.  He  then  took  a 
horse  car  and  rode  to  Sixth  Street,  got  out  and  went  into  the 
depot,  and  loitered  around  there;  had  his  shoes  blacked; 
engaged  a  hackman  for  $2  to  take  him  to  the  jail;  went  into 
the  water-closet  and  took  his  pistol  out  of  his  hip-pocket,  and 
unwrapped  the  paper  from  around  it,  which  he  had  put  there 
for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  perspiration  from  the  body 
dampening  the  powder;  examined  his  pistol;  carefully  tried 
the  trigger,  and  then  returned  and  took  a  seat  in  the  ladies' 
waiting-room,  and,  as  soon  as  the  President  entered,  advanced 
behind  him  and  fired  two  shots. 

These  facts,  I  think  can  be  relied  upon  as  accurate,  and  I 
give  them  to  the  public  to  contradict  certain  false  rumors  in 
connection  with  the  most  atrocious  of  atrocious  crimes. 


CHAPTER  II. 

INDICTMENT   AND    PLEA. 

THE  Grand  Jury  for  the  District  of  Colum 
bia  was  discharged  on  July  8th,  the  Dis 
trict-Attorney  not  presenting  Guiteau  for 
indictment  at  that  time,  because  of  the   following 
letter  from  President  Garfield's  physicians,  sent  in 
answer  to  official  inquiry  as  to  his  condition : 

SIR  :  In  reply  to  your  inquiry  as  to  the  condition  of  the 
President,  we  would  say  that  up  to  the  present  time  he  has 
done  exceedingly  well  for  one  who  has  received  so  dangerous 
a  wound  ;  but  while  we  anticipate  recovery,  it  is  not  yet 
possible  to  assert  with  confidence  that  his  injuries  may  not 
terminate  fatally. 

Very  respectfully, 

D.  W.  BLISS,  J.  K.  BARNES, 

J.  J.  WOODWARD,     ROBERT  REYBURN. 

These  anticipations  having  been  sadly  disap 
pointed  by  the  President's  death,  the  Grand  Jury, 
on  October  8th,  found  a  true  bill  against  Guiteau, 
and  lodged  with  the  District-Attorney,  for  "  the 
murder  of  James  A.  Garfield,  President  of  the 
United  States,  by  wounding  him  with  a  bullet 
fired  from  a  pistol  in  the  hands  of  Charles  J.  Gui 
teau,  at  the  Baltimore  and  Potomac  Depot,  on  or 
about  the  2d  day  of  July,  A.  D.,  1881." 

The  indictment  contains  eleven  counts,  drawn 

(H9) 


l$0  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.     GUITEAU, 

with  great  care  and  minuteness.     A  synopsis  of 
the  bill  is  appended  : 

The  Grand  Jurors  of  the  United  States  of  America  in  and 
for  the  county  and  district  aforesaid,  upon  their  oath  present 
that  Charles  J.  Guiteau,  late  of  the  county  and  district  afore 
said,  on  the  second  day  of  July,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty-one,  with  force  and  arms, 
at  and  in  the  county  and  district  aforesaid,  in  and  upon  the 
body  of  one  James  A.  Garfield,  .he,  the  said  James  A.  Gar- 
field  in  the  peace  of  God  and  of  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ca,  then  and  there  being,  feloniously,  wilfully  and  of  his 
malice  aforethought,  did  make  an  assault,  and  that  the  said 
Charles  J.  Guiteau,  a  certain  pistol  of  the  value  of  $10  then 
and  there  charged  with  gunpowder  and  one  leaden  bullet, 
which  said  pistol  he,  the  said  Charles  J.  Guiteau,  in  his  right 
hand  then  and  there  had  and  held,  then  and  there  felonious 
ly,  wilfully  and  of  his  malice  aforethought,  did  discharge  and 
shoot  off  to,  against  and  upon  the  said  James  A.  Garfield, 
and  that  the  said  Charles  J.  Guiteau,  with  the  leaden  bullet 
aforesaid,  out  of  the  pistol  aforesaid,  then  and  there,  by  force 
of  the  gunpowder  aforesaid,  by  the  said  Charles  J.  Guiteau 
discharged  and  shot  off  as  aforesaid,  then  and  there 
feloniously,  wilfully  and  of  his  malice  aforethought,  did  strike, 
penetrate  and  wound  him,  the  said  James  A.  Gaafield,  in  and 
upon  the  right  side  of  the  back  of  him,  the  said  James  A. 
Garfield,  giving  to  him,  the  said  James  A.  Garfield,  then  and 
there  with  the  leaden  bullet  aforesaid,  so  as  aforesaid  dis 
charged  and  shot  out  of  the  pistol  aforesaid  by  the  said  Charles 
J.  Guiteau  in  and  upon  the  right  side  of  the  back  of  him,  the 
said  James  A.  Garfield,  one  mortal  wound  of  the  depth  of  six 
inches  and  of  the  breadth  of  one  inch,  of  which  said  mortal 
wound  he,  the  said  James  A.  Garfield,  from  the  said  second 
day  of  July,  in  the  year  last  aforesaid,  until  the  nineteenth 
day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  eighty-one,  at  and  in  the  county  and  dis- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  151 

trict  aforesaid,  did  languish,  and  languishing,  did  live;  on 
which  said  igth  day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty-one,  at  and  in  the 
county  and  district  aforesaid,  the  said  James  A.  Garfield  of 
the  mortal  wound  aforesaid  died. 

The  second  count  is  precisely  like  the  first,  with 
the  exception  of  the  last  clause,  which  reads,  "  of 
which  said  mortal  wound  he,  the  said  James  A. 
Garfield,  then  and  there  instantly  died." 

In  the  third  count  the  last  clause  is  varied  as 
follows : — 

Of  which  said  mortal  wound  he,  the  said  James  A.  Garfield, 
from  the  said  2d  day  of  July,  in  the  year  last  aforesaid,  until 
the  i pth  day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1881,  as 
well  at,  and  in  the  county  and  district  aforesaid  as  at  and  in  the 
county  of  Monmouth,  and  State  of  New  Jersey,  did  languish, 
and  languishing  did  live,  on  which  said  i9th  day  of  Septem 
ber,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  iSSi,  at  and  in  the  county  of 
Monmouth,  and  State  of  New  Jersey  aforesaid,  the  said  James 
A.  Garfield,  of  the  mortal  wound  aforesaid,  died. 

The  fourth  count  is  identical  with  the  third, 
except  that  it  omits  the  last  twelve  words  of  the 
final  clause  and  substitutes  the  following : — 

To-wit,  at  and  in  the  county  of  Washington  and  District 
of  Columbia,  the  said  James  A.  Garfield,  of  the  mortal 
wound  aforesaid;  died. 

The  only  variation  in  the  fifth  count  is  a  change 
in  the  order  of  mention  of  the  places  where  death 
is  said  to  have  occurred,  the  county  of  Washington 
and  District  of  Columbia  being  put  first. 

The  sixth  count  is  like  the  third,  except  in  re- 


1^2  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

citinof  that  the  offence  charged  was  committed  in 

o  o 

the  Baltimore  and  Potomac  Railroad  depot  in  the 
city  of  Washington,  which  building  stands  and  at 
that  time  stood  on  ground  belonging  to  and  under 
the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States. 

The  seventh  count  repeats  the  recital  of  the 
sixth  with  regard  to  the  place  where  the  offence 
was  committed  and  in  all  other  respects  is  like 
the  fourth. 

The  eighth  count  also  repeats  the  recital  of  the 
sixth  with  regard  to  the  place  where  the  assault 
occurred,  and  is  in  all  other  respects  like  the  fifth. 

The  ninth  count  is  varied  by  the  introduction 
of  the  recital  that  the  district  in  which  the  offence 
charged  was  committed  constitutes  a  judicial 
circuit  of  the  United  States,  and  that  the  county 
of  Monmouth  and  State  of  New  Jersey,  where 
the  said  James  A.  Garfield  died,  form  part  of  a 
judicial  circuit  of  the  United  States,  other  than 
the  judicial  circuit  of  the  United  States  consisting 
of  the  District  of  Columbia.  In  all  other  respects 
this  count  is  like  the  third. 

The  tenth  count  recites  that  the  district  in 
which  the  offence  was  committed  constitutes  a 
judicial  district  of  the  United  States,  and  that  the 
State  of  New  Jersey,  within  the  limits  of  which 
the  said  James  A.  Garfield  died,  constitutes  a 
judicial  district  of  the  United  States  other  than 
the  judicial  district  of  the  United  States  consist 
ing  of  the  District  of  Columbia.  In  all  other 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  l  c^ 

respects  this  count  is  like  the   one   immediately 
preceding. 

The  eleventh  and  last  count  is  a  repetition  of 
the  third,  with  the  following  addition  : — 

And  that  thereafter — to  wit,  on  the  2ist  day  of  September, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  iSSi — the  dead  body  of  him,  the 
said  James  A.  Garfield,  was  removed  from  the  said  county  of 
Monmouth  and  State  of  New  Jersey  and  brought  into  the 
county  of  Washington  and  District  of  Columbia,  within 
which  last  mentioned  county  the  said  dead  body  of  him,  the 
said  James  A.  Garfield,  lay  and  remained  from  the  2ist  day 
of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1881,  until  the  23d 
day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1881. 

Each  of  the  eleven  counts  of  the  indictment 
closes  with  the  following  formal  charge : — 

o  c> 

And  so  the  Grand  Jurors  aforesaid  do  say  that  the  said 
Charles  J.  Guiteau,  him,  the  said  James  A.  Garfield,  in  the 
manner  and  by  the  means  aforesaid,  feloniously,  wilfully  and 
of  his  malice  afore-thought,  did  kill  and  murder,  against  the 
form  of  the  statute  in  such  case  made  and  provided,  and 
against  the  peace  and  government  of  the  United  States  of 
America. 

On  the  morning  of  October  4th,  Mr.  George 
M.  Scoville,  the  brother-in-law  of  Guiteau,  arrived 
in  Washington,  and  after  a  hasty  breakfast  pro 
ceeded  to  the  jail  where  Guiteau  was  confined, 
and  had  an  interview  with  him. 

On  October  nth,  a  copy  of  the  indictment  was 
served  upon  Guiteau  by  Deputy  Marshal  Williams, 
who  also  furnished  the  list  of  names  from  which 
twelve  jurors  were  to  be  selected,  and  also  the 
list  of  witnesses  to  be  called  by  the  Government. 


1^4  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

Friday,  October  I4th,  Guiteau  was  brought  into 
court  and  arraigned  on  the  charge  of  murdering 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  The  fact  that 
the  arraignment  was  to  take  place  this  morning 
remained  a  secret.  The  accused  was  brought 

o 

from  his  cell  at  ten  o'clock  to  the  Warden's  office 
in  the  jail,  where  he  was  manacled,  and  then  es 
corted  by  two  officers  to  a  hack  in  waiting  and 
driven  at  a  rapid  rate  over  the  broad  commons 
and  asphalt  pavements,  unobserved,  to  the  Dis 
trict  Court  House.  An  eye  witness  thus  describes 
the  scene.  "At  a  quarter  past  eleven  o'clock 
the  little  door  in  the  dark  corner  of  the  room  is 
opened.  The  stalwart  figure  of  Marshal  Henry, 
leads  the  way,  and  behind  him  a  sort  of  brigand, 
with  slouch  hat,  collarless  shirt  and  dark  coat  and 
pants,  in  the  grasp  of  two  men  of  nerve,  is  led 
rapidly  to  the  upturned  chair  beside  Mr.  Scoville. 
The  shining  manacles  on  his  wrists  tell  the  story 
briefly.  It  is  Guiteau.  The  brawny  arm  of  the 
marshal  pulls  down  the  chair  for  the  prisoner  and 
a  bailiff  removes  his  hat,  and  another  unlocks  the 
handcuffs,  and  the  prisoner  repays  the  release 
with  a  gracious  smile.  The  wild  stare  and  nerv 
ous  twitch  which  betrayed  his  feelings  upon  enter 
ing  the  court  room  in  part  disappeared  when  once 
seated.  There  was  a  shudder  of  apprehension  in 
the  audience  until  the  District-Attorney  arose,  and 
in  a  voice  hardly  audible  to  any  one  but  the  Court 
he  feelingly  announced  the  presence  of  Charles  J. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  155 

Guiteau,  indicted  for  the  murder  of  James  A. 
Garfield." 

Then  followed  the  reading  of  the  indictment. 
At  its  close  Guiteau  presented  a  paper  containing 
a  plea  of  "not guilty,"  upon  the  three  grounds  of 
insanity,  malpractice  and  lack  of  jurisdiction.  The 
substance  of  the  paper,  which  was  not  then  read,  is 
as  follows : 

I  plead  not  guilty  to  the  indictment  and  my  defense  is 
threefold : 

First — Insanity,  in  that  it  was  God's  act  and  not  mine. 
The  divine  pressure  on  me  to  remove  the  Pnsident  was  so 
enormous  that  it  destroyed  my  free  agency,  and  therefore  I 
am  not  legally  responsible  for  my  act. 

Second — The  President  died  from  malpractice.  About 
three  weeks  after  he  was  shot  his  physicians,  after  a  careful 
examination,  decided  that  he  would  recover.  Two  months 
after  this  official  announcement  he  died.  Therefore  I  say  he 
was  not  fatally  shot.  If  he  had  been  well  treated  he  would 
have  recovered. 

Third — The  President  died  in  New  Jersey,  and,  therefore, 
beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  this  court.  This  malpractice  and 
the  President's  death  in  New  Jersey  are  special  providences, 
and  I  am  bound  to  avail  myself  of  them  on  my  trial  in 
justice  to  the  Lord  and  myself.  I  undertake  to  say  that  the 
Lord  is  managing  my  case  with  consummate  ability  and  that 
He  had  a  special  object  in  allowing  the  President  to  die  in 
New  Jersey.  His  management  of  this  case  is  worthy  of  him 
as  the  Deity,  and  I  have  entire  confidence  in  his  disposition 
to  protect  me  and  send  me  forth  to  the  world  a  free  and 
vindicated  man.  *  The  President  would  not 

have  died  had  the  Lord  not  have  wished  him  to  go.  I  have  no 
conception  of  it  as  a  murder  or  an  assassination.  I  had  no 
feeling  of  wrong-doing  when  I  sought  to  remove  him,  because 


I  -5  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   QUITE  AU, 

it  was  God's  act  and  not  mine,  for  the  good  of  the  American 
people.     I  plead  not  guilty  to  the  indictment. 

Mr.  Scoville  then   presented  an   affidavit  out 
lining    the    proposed    defense    and   designating 


GEORGE  M.  SCOVILLE,  COUNSEL  FOR  THE  DEFENSE. 

witnesses  whose  fees  and  expenses  it  was  desired 
the  Court  should  pay  in  such  manner  as  witnesses 
for  the  government  are  paid.  Further  time  for 
preparation  was  asked  also. 


ASSASSJN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD, 


157 


As  the  time  for  the  trial  drew  near  arrange 
ments  were  perfected  by  adding  counsel  on  both 
sides,  Mr.  Leigh  Robinson  entering  for  the  de 
fense,  and  Mr.  Walter  D.  Davidge  for  the 
prosecution.  It  was  also  decided  to  abandon  the 
pleas  on  the  grounds  of  malpractice  and  lack 
of  jurisdiction.  Mr.  Scoville  also  issued  the  follow 
ing  card  to  the  public : 

The  trial  of  Guiteau  is  fixed  for  November  7.  The  short 
time  allowed  makes  this  appeal  to  the  public  necessary.  Will 
the  press  kindly  copy  it  ? 

He  attempted  to  lecture  on  religious  subjects  through  sev 
eral  Northern  states.  It  is  believed  there  are  many  people  in 
that  connection  who  can,  if  they  will,  furnish  evidence  of  his 
insanity.  Will  they  not  do  so  in  the  interests  of  patriotism, 
justice,  humanity  and  mercy  ?  Patriotism,  because  if  he  is 
hanged  as  a  sane  man  it  will  be  an  eternal  blot  on  our  history  ; 
justice,  so  that  it  may  not  be  said  hereafter  that  he,  being  de 
prived  by  Heaven  of  the  guidance  of  reason,  was  put  to  death, 
contrary  to  all  law,  human  and  divine,  humanity  and  mercy^ 
that  should  prompt  the  laying  aside  of  passion  and  the  deal 
ing  with  this  case  in  Christian  charity. 

If  any  person  knows  of  facts  bearing  on  this  question  will 
he  not  furnish  me  the  information  ?  No  one  will  be  called  to 
testify  unless  it  seems  to  be  important  to  a  just  defence  and  a 
fair  trial.  Please  communicate  at  once  with 

GEORGE  SCOVILLE,  Washington,  D.  C. 

This  card  called  forth  many  replies,  some  of 
them  seemingly  valuable,  but  more  of  them  abso 
lutely  worthless.  The  day  of  trial  was  at  last 
postponed  to  Monday,  November,  I4th. 


CHAPTER   III. 

IMPANELING   A   JURY. 

A  VERY  serious  task  was  apprehended    in 
the    selection  of  a   jury  to  try  Guiteau. 
Mr.   Scoville     frankly    said,     beforehand, 
that  all  he  wanted  was  candid,  intelligent  jurors, 
who  would  give  an  honest  verdict  on  the  evidence 
submitted,  and  that  he  would  not  object  to  a  man 
simply  because  he  had  read  the  newspapers  or 
formed  an  opinion. 

The  trial  began  Monday,  November  1/j.th,  at 
10  o'clock,  a.m.  In  order  to  avoid  the  crowd, 
Marshal  Henry  had  Guiteau  taken  from  the  jail 
at  8  o'clock,  and  he  was  securely  lodged  in  the 
prisoners'  room  of  the  Court-house  before  the 
crowd  had  assembled.  The  assassin  \vas  escorted 
from  jail  by  four  mounted  policemen,  two  of  whom 
rode  in  front  of,  and  two  behind,  the  van.  A 
guard  of  four  men  also  rode  on  the  van.  Gui 
teau  was  handcuffed  before  leaving  his  cell,  the 
irons  being-  removed  after  he  entered  the  court- 

o 

room.  He  looked  in  much  better  condition,  physi 
cally  and  otherwise,  than  when  he  appeared  in 
the  same  room  to  plead  to  the  indictment.  Still, 
he  had  the  same  restless  expression  which  charac 
terized  him  before. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


There  was  a  great  scramble  for  front  seats  by 
the  crowd,  which  hardly  differed  in  character  from 
that  usually  seen  in  a  criminal  court  where  any 
case  involving  local  or  public  interest  is  being  tried. 
A  noticeable  feature  of  the  gathering  was  the  large 
number  of  young  persons.  There  were  not  over 
twenty  colored  persons  among  the  spectators.  A 
dozen  or  more  ladies,  including  Mrs.  Scoville, 
sister  of  the  prisoner,  were  in  the  court-room. 
There  was  a  marked  absence  of  prominent  lawyers, 
and  but  few  men  of  note  were  present,  outside 
those  encracred  in  the  trial.  Mr.  Smith,  Assistant 

o     o 

Attorney-General,  was  present  as  advisory  counsel 
to  the  prosecution. 

The  District-  Attorney  Mr.  Corkhill,  Judge  Por 
ter,  of  New  York,  and  Mr.  Davidge,  of  Washing 
ton,  who  represented  the  government  in  the  prose 
cution,  and  Mr.  Smith  had  seats  to  the  left  of  the 
table,  facing  the  judge.  Next  were  the  counsel 
for  the  accused  —  Mr.  Robinson,  of  Washington, 
and  Mr.  Scoville,  of  Chicago.  Immediately  to 
Mr.  Robinson's  right  sat  the  prisoner.  By  his 
side  were  his  sister,  Mrs.  Scoville,  and  then  his 
brother,  John  Wilson  Guiteau,  of  Boston.  Between 
the  attorneys'  table  and  the  railing  to  the  forum 
were  seats  set  apart  for  the  press.  On  either 
side  and  immediately  in  the  rear  were  those  for 
the  local  bar.  Further  to  the  rear  was  the  plat 
form  on  which  seats  were  arranged  for  the  gene 
ral  spectators. 


I  62  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

As  soon  as  the  main  door  opened  there  was  a 
general  rush  for  places,  men  climbing  and  pulling 
over  chairs  in  their  haste  to  get  a  good  position 
whence  they  could  hear  the  proceedings  and  better 
observe  the  actors.  Outside  of  the  building  there 
was  a  comparatively  small  crowd  anxious  to  get 
within,  which  was  impossible  as  there  was  not 
standing  room  in  the  court.  Along  the  halls  of 
the  building  were  detectives,  policemen  and  spe 
cial  officers. 

Proceedings  began  promptly,  Judge  Walter  S. 
Cox  on  the  bench.  A  surprising  scene  imme 
diately  followed  between  the  counsel  for  the  de 
fence.  Mr.  Robinson  stated  that  he  had  not  con 
sulted  with  Mr.  Scoville  for  several  clays.  When 
Mr.  Scoville  interposed  his  objection  to  a  continu 
ance  of  the  case  the  fact  was  developed  that  Mr. 
Robinson  had  made  the  affidavit  and  selected 
additional  counsel  without  Mr.  Scoville's  knowl 
edge  or  consent.  The  result  of  this  announce 
ment  was  that  Guiteau  and  his  two  lawyers  tried 
to  address  the  Court  at  the  same  time.  Mr. 
Scoville  was  somewhat  agitated.  Mr.  Robinson 

o 

was  cool  and  assured. 

It  was  finally  decided  to  proceed  at  once  with 
the  trial,  and  the  impaneling  of  a  jury  was  the 
first  duty.  Of  the  twenty-four  jurors  examined 
all  save  one,  a  mulatto  ship-cook,  had  formed  an 
opinion.  Three  said  they  were  in  favor  of  hang 
ing  the  prisoner.  One,  a  colored  man,  said  his 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


'63 


opinion  was  such  that  no  amount  of  testimony 
could  change  him.  A  good  deal  of  merriment 
was  caused  by  the  interrogations  and  replies  in 
the  examination  of  jurors. 


HIS   HONOR  JUDGE   COX,  OF   THE   SUPREME   COURT,  D.  C. 

Of  the  five  jurors  selected,  three  were  reported  to 
be  Democrats.  One  is  an  ex- Methodist  preacher. 
Three  of  them  have  never  had  a  law-suit  and  none 
have  ever  served  on  a  petit  jury. 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


The  following  are  the  names  ot  the  jurors 
selected  on  the  first  day  : 

JOHN  P.  HAMLIN,  restaurant-keeper. 
FREDERICK  W.  BRANDENBERG,  cigar-maker. 
CHARLES  G.  STEWART,  flour  and  feed  dealer. 
HENRY  J.  BRIGHT,  retired  from  business. 
THOMAS  H.  LANGLEY,  grocer. 

At  the  suggestion  of  the  District-Attorney,  an 
order  was  issued  for  the  drawing  of  seventy-five 
additional  names  from  the  box. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  trial,  Tuesday,  No 
vember  1  5th,  the  work  of  securing  a  jury  was 
proceeded  with.  During  the  examination  of 
talesman  for  the  jury,  Guiteau  several  times  re 
quested  Mr.  Scoville  to  ask  certain  questions,  and 
frequently  made  suggestions  which  he  deemed 
absolutely  necessary.  He  especially  objected  to 
any  one  as  a  juror  who  believed  him  insane,  and 
insisted  that  Mr.  Scoville  should  challenge  any 
person  who  held  such  an  opinion.  He  said  that 
he  did  not  wish  this  to  be  made  an  issue,  but  pre 
ferred  the  trial  to  be  on  the  merits  of  the  case. 
Mr.  Scoville  humored  the  whims  of  Mr.  Guiteau, 
and  whenever  he  accepted  a  juror,  consulted  the 
prisoner  before  doing  so. 

Of  the  seventy  talesmen  drawn  to-day  from  the 
box,  the  defense  peremptorily  challenged  three 
and  accepted  four.  The  prosecution  challenged 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  \  65 

one,  three  or  four  were  excused,  and  the  rest 
were  disqualified  by  reason  of  their  opinions, 
which,  they  said,  would  render  it  impossible  for 
them  to  give  the  prisoner  a  fair  and  impartial  trial. 
The  cross-examination  of  talesmen  by  Mr.  Sco- 
ville  was  conducted  ingeniously  and  excellently. 
Nearly  every  person  examined  made  some  re 
mark  that  caused  general  laughter,  and  even  Gui- 
teau  smiled  several  times  at  the  witty  answers. 
John  P.  Buckley  said  he  could  not  do  the  prisoner 
justice,  and  was,  therefore,  declared  disqualified. 
John  Lynch,  a  white  man,  when  asked  by  the 
Judge  as  to  the  character  of  the  opinion  he  had 
formed  on  the  matter  said :  "  I  think  the  prisoner 
ought  to  be  hung  or  burnt.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  United  States  to  convince  me  otherwise." 

Joshua  Green  said  he  was  of  opinion  that  the 
prisoner  should  be  hanged.  This  opinion  was 
also  expressed  by  a  colored  man,  Alexander 
Peterson.  John  Judd,  being  called  up,  said  he 
thought  the  prisoner  should  be  hanged,  as  he  had 
swindled  him  out  of  fifty  dollars.  William  F. 
Poulton  said  his  opinion  was  such  that  no  amount 
of  evidence  could  change  it.  He  believed  the 
prisoner  onght  to  have  a  rope  put  around  his 
neck. 

L.  C.  Bailey,  a  colored  man,  in  defining  his 
opinion,  said  he  fully  believed  Guiteau  was  crazy. 
Much  amusement  was  caused  by  the  answers  of 
Mr.  Bade,  a  typical  colored  gentleman  of  the  old 


I  66  TRIAL   OP  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

school.  Dade  wore  a  puffed  bosom  shirt,  and 
across  his  right  shoulder  hung  carelessly  a  gray 
toga.  With  thorough  composure  of  manner,  and 
a  wooden  toothpick  in  one  corner  of  his  mouth, 
he  answered  shrewdly  and  wittily  every  question 
propounded.  He  was  the  second  colored  man 
challenged  to-day  by  the  defense,  the  other  being 
Mr.  Howard,  who  was  too  ignorant  to  tell  whether 
he  had  any  opinion. 

The  four  additional  jurors  accepted  to-day  are : 

MICHAEL  SHEEHAN,  an  Irish  grocer. 
SAMUEL  F.   HOBBS,  a  plasterer  by  trade. 
GEORGE  W.  GATES,  in  the  Government  navy  yard. 
RALPH  WORMLEY,  a  colored  laborer. 

For  the  third  day  another  list  of  seventy-five 
talesmen  was  ordered.  By  a  quarter  to  one  the 
three  remaining  jurors  had  been  selected  from 
the  sixty  talesmen  examined  in  Court.  Out  of 
this  number  four  persons  were  excused,  the  Gov 
ernment  challenged  four,  the  defense  seven,  three 
being  accepted  and  sworn,  while  the  other  forty- 
two  were  disqualified  from  serving  because  of 
their  opinions.  The  examination  was  conducted 
with  great  shrewdness  by  Mr.  Scoville,  who, 
though  not  a  criminal  lawyer,  has  given  evidence 
of  superior  judgment  and  unquestionable  tact. 

During   the  examination  several  incidents  oc- 

o 

curred  worthy  of  mention  : 

The  first  challenge  by  the  defense  was  that  of 
Edward  Thomas,  who  said  he  could  not  read  and 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


I67 


had  "  never  formed  any  opinion  whatsoever."  Mr. 
Scoville  remarked  that  while  this  was  such  a  per 
son  as  the  law  qualified,  the  defense  did  not  want 
him.  The  second  challenge  by  the  defense  was 
S.  H.  Williams,  a  barber,  who  thought  the  act 
dastardly,  but  had  "  since  modified  his  opinion  on 
the  subject."  The  next  challenge  by  the  defense 
was  Thomas  H.  Barron,  a  carpenter,  who  twenty 
years  ago  had  employed  Mr.  Davidge,  now  of 
Government  counsel.  John  Hughes,  a  colored 
man,  who  could  not  read,  was  also  challenged  by 
the  defense.  Charles  Hopkins,  a  bartender,  who 
objected  to  serving  on  the  case  because  he  thought 
"  the  duty  would  be  too  confining,"  was  challenged 
by  the  defense.  Frederick  C.  Revels  (colored) 
was  challenged  by  the  defense  because  he  is  em 
ployed  under  his  father,  a  deputy  marshal  in  the 
police  court.  One  said,  when  examined  as  to  his 
qualification  by  Judge  Cox :  "  My  opinion  is  such 
that  no  evidence  whatever  will  change  it."  An 
other  said  :  "  There  is  nothing  under  the  sun  that 
can  change  my  opinion."  Again  came  the  em 
phatic  answer :  "  My  opinion  is  unchangeable, 
and  I  know  that  no  evidence  will  modify  it."  One 
person  said :  "  I  am  satisfied  of  the  prisoner's 
guilt  and  it  will  have  to  be  proved  that  he  is 
not  guilty  before  I  will  change  my  opinion." 
Three  talesmen  were  positive  as  to  what  disposi 
tion  should  be  made  of  Guiteau.  One  said  his 
opinion  was  such  that  nothing  save  the  rope 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


should  be  used.  Enoch  Edmundson,  upon  being 
examined,  said  :  "  No  amount  of  torture  is  too 
great  for  the  prisoner.'  Allison  Naylor,  a  livery 
stable  keeper,  said  :  "  No  amount  of  proof  can 
remove  my  opinion  but  that  the  prisoner  should 
be  hung."  Of  course  these  remarks  were  made 
under  oath,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  jury,  the 
court  and  the  spectators. 

As  finally  constituted,  the  jury  was  made  up  as 
follows  : 

JOHN  P.  HAMLIN,  restaurant  keeper. 
FRED.  W.  BRANDENBERG,  cigar  dealer. 
HENRY  J.  BRIGHT,  retired  merchant. 
CHARLES  J.  STEWART,  merchant. 
THOMAS  H.  LANGLEY,  grocer. 
MICHAEL  SHEEHAN,  grocer. 
SAMUEL  F.  HOBBS,  plasterer. 
GEORGE  W.  GATES,  machinist. 
RALPH  WORMLEY  (colored),  laborer.' 
W.  H.  BRAWNER,  commission  merchant. 
THOMAS  HEINLEIN,  iron  worker. 
JOSEPH  BATHER,  commission  merchant. 

The  oath  was  then  administered  to  the  jury  in 
these  words  : 

You  and  each  of  you  do  solemnly  swear  that  you  will  well 
and  truly  try  and  a  true  deliverance  make  between  the  United 
States  and  Charles  J.  Guiteau,  the  prisoner  at  the  bar,  whom 
you  shall  have  in  charge,  indicted  for  the  murder  of  James 
A.  Garfield,  and  a  true  verdict  give  according  to  the  evi 
dence,  so  help  you  God. 

With  the  impaneling  of  the  jury  and  their  oath, 
the  proceedings  of  the  third  day  closed. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   PROSECUTION. 

THE  scene  in  and  about  the  Criminal  Court 
room,  on  the  fourth  day  of  the  trial,  Thurs 
day,  November  I7th,  was  not  materially 
different  from  that  of  the  preceding  days.  Ar 
rangements  for  preserving  order  were  better,  and 
possibly  a  better  class  of  spectators  was  present. 
Mr.  Scoville  made  a  brief  explanation  of  his  re 
lations  with  his  colleague,  Mr.  Robinson,  declaring 
that  all  was  amicable'. 

This  speech  had  the  effect  of  bringing  Guiteau 
to  his  feet  and  precipitating  the  first  scene  of  the 
day.  With  flashing  eyes,  violent  gestures  and  an 
excited  voice  the  prisoner  addressed  the  Court: 

"  May  it  please  the  Court,"  he  said,  "  I  object  to 
Mr.  Robinson  appearing  in  this  case." 

The  Court  (severely) — "Take  your  seat,  pris 
oner.  I  wish  you  to  understand  distinctly  that 
your  labors  as  counsel  in  this  case,  as  you  claim 
to  be,  shall  be  confined  to  consultation  with  the 
associate  counsel  in  the  case.  If  you  disobey,"  he 
continued,  as  the  prisoner  again  jumped  to  his 
feet  and  commenced  another  wild  speech,  "the 
Court  will  be  under  the  necessity  of  ordering 

169 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


your  removal  from  the  court- room  and  proceeding 
with  the  trial  in  your  absence." 


HON.  GEO.  B.  CORKHILL,  U.  S.  DISTRICT-ATTORNEY,  D.  C. 

Order  being  thus  secured  the  District-Attorney 
proceeded  with  his  opening  speech.  He  said  : 

May  it  please  the  Court  and  gentlemen  of  the  jury  :  The 
prisoner  at  the  bar  stands  before  you  charged  with  the  murder 
of  James  A.  Garfield.  Under  any  circumstances  there  rests 
a  grave  and  responsible  obligation  upon  every  man  who  is 


ASSASSnV  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  l  ~  l 

called  upon  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  under  the  law  to  render 
a  decision  upon  which  depends  the  life  of  a  fellow-creature, 
and  while  it  is  true  that  the  offence  charged  in  the  present 
case  is  no  greater  in  legal  gravity  and  consequences  to  the 
prisoner  than  if  by  his  act  he  had  taken  the  life  of  the  hum 
blest  and  most  obscure  citizen  of  the  Republic,  still  it  is  idle 
to  overlook  the  fact  that  the  eminent  character  of  the  man 
whose  life  was  taken,  his  high  official  position  and  the  startling 
effects  of  the  commission  of  the  crime,  render  the  case  one  of 
unusual  and  unparalleled  importance. 

Murder  under  all  circumstances  and  upon  all  occasions  is 
shocking.  The  life,  of  which  we  know  so  little  and  which 
we  hold  by  so  fragile  a  tenure,  is  dear  to  us  all,  and  when  it  is 
brought  to  a  close,  not  in  the  usual  order  and  course  of  na 
ture,  but  prematurely  by  violence,  no  matter  what  may  be  the 
condition  of  the  person,  the  human  mind  is  appalled  with  ter 
ror.  When  a  man  holding  a  position  of  eminence  and  power 
falls  a  causeless  victim  to  the  murderer's  stroke,  we  realize  still 
more  fully  the  awfulness  of  the  deed  which  produces  this  result. 

In  a  public  depot  the  prisoner  at  the  bar,  without  warning, 
fires  upon  him  with  a  pistol,  inflicting  wounds  which  result  in 
his  death.  And  to-day  this,  the  greatest  case  ever  presented 
to  a  court  of  justice,  is  entrusted  entirely  to  you,  who  have 
been  selected  from  the  body  of  the  community  to  weigh  the 
evidence  and  the  law  and  then  to  say  upon  your  oaths  whether 
the  man  charged  with  the  crime  is  guilty.  While  this  trial 
will  attract  unusual  attention,  while  every  stage  of  its  pro 
gress  will  be  watched  with  intense  interest  throughout  the  en 
tire  world,  yet  its  final  decision  rests  with  you.  You  are  to 
determine,  after  you  shall  have  heard  the  evidence  and  the 
law,  whether  or  not  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  is  guilty  of  the 
murder  of  James  A.  Garfiekt.  *  * 

No  words  can  faithfully  depict  the  scenes  of  that  fatal  July 
morning.  It  was  bright  and  beautiful,  and  as  the  morning 
sunlight  gilded  the  dome  of  the  Capitol  its  rays  fell  upon  a 
city  adorned  with  all  the  luxuriant  loveliness  of  summer  leaf 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GLITEAU, 


and  flower,  The  President,  wearied  with  official  care  was 
specially  joyous  at  his  approaching  vacation.  His  official  life 
had  been  one  of  anxiety  and  labor,  but  on  this  occasion  he 
was  bright  with  hope  for  the  future.  He  was  on  his  way  to 
join  a  convalescent  wife  at  Long  Branch  and  then  to  visit  the 
college  from  which  he  had  graduated  and  to  join  with  comrades 
of  his  student  life  in  a  reunion  in  the  halls  of  his  Alma  Mafer. 
It  was  to  him  an  approaching  season  of  great  pleasure,  and  he 
started  from  the  Executive  Mansion,  in  company  with  the 
Secretary  of  State,  for  the  depot,  buoyant  and  glad.  Early 
in  the  morning  of  July  2nd,  last,  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  made 
preparations  for  the  murder.  Breakfasting  at  the  Riggs  House 
he  took  the  fearful  weapon  that  he  had  previously  obtained, 
and  going  to  the  foot  of  Seventeenth  street,  away  from  resi 
dences  and  beyond  observation,  he  planted  a  stick  in  the  soft 
mud  on  the  river  bank  where  the  tide  had  gone  out  and 
deliberately  practised  his  aim  and  tested  his  weapon.  He 
intended  there  should  be  no  failure  in  the  accomplishment 
of  the  crime  for  which  he  had  been  preparing.  Returning 
he  took  with  him,  a  small  bundle  of  papers  and  went  to 
the  Baltimore  and  Potomac  Railroad  depot  at  half-past  8 
o'clock  a.  m.,  an  hour  before  the  arrival  of  the  President. 
After  reaching  the  depot  he  went  the  news-stand,  and  left 
certain  papers  with  a  letter  addressed  to  Byron  Andrews,  a  cor 
respondent  of  the  Chicago  Inter-  Ocean,  and  a  package  ad 
dressed  to  Mr.  Preston  of  the  New  York  Herald,  and  then 
went  into  the  closet,  carefully  examined  his  weapon,  placed 
it  in  his  pocket,  returned  and  went  outside  to  the  pavement, 
had  his  boots  blacked,  and  then  to  avoid  the  swift  vengeance 
of  an  outraged  community,  which  he  properly  feared,  engaged 
a  carriage  to  take  him,  as  he  said,  to  the  Congressional  bury 
ing  ground,  this  point  being  near  the  jail,  and  then  entered 
the  waiting-room  to  wait  for  his  victim.  All  unconscious  of 
this  preparation  for  his  murder,  President  Garfield,  in  com- 
'pany  with  Secretary  Blaine,  arrived  at  the  depot  and  fora  few 
moments  remained  in  the  carriage  in  conversation.  While  thus 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


173 


occupied  the  assaasin  stood  gazing  at  them,  waiting  and  watch 
ing  for  a  favorable  opportunity  for  the  perpetrationof  the  deed. 

The  President  and  Secretary  of  State  alighted  faom  the 
carriage.  With  his  usual  courtesy,  President  Garfield  hesitated 
a  moment  on  the  step  to  acknowledge  the  salutation  of  the 
policeman  at  the  door,  and  then  entered  the  depot.  He  had 
gone  but  a  few  steps  when  the  assassin,  lurking  in  the  rear, 
stepped  up  behind  him  and,  pointing  his  pistol  with  deliberate 
aim,  fired  at  his  back,  the  first  shot  no  doubt  doing  the  fatal 
work.  The  President  shuddered,  staggered  and  attempted  to 
turn,  when  another  shot  was  fired  and  he  fell  bleeding  to  the 
floor,  unconscious.  The  horror  that  seized  upon  every  one 
may  be  imagined,  but  no  words  can  describe  it.  The  ball  from 
the  assassin's  pistol  had  entered  the  middle  of  the  back  of  the 
President,  about  three  inches  to  the  right  of  the  backbone, 
inflicting  a  fearful  wound,  which  resulted  in  his  death  after 
nearly  three  months  of  pain  and  suffering,  and  here  the  story 
of  this  crime  might  legally  end. 

The  unlawful  killing  of  any  reasonable  creature  by  a  person 
of  sound  memory  and  discretion,  with  malice  aforethought, 
either  expressed  or  implied,  is  murder.  The  motives  and 
intentions  of  an  individual  who  commits  a  crime  are  of 
necessity  known  to  him  alone.  No  human  power  can  pene 
trate  the  recesses  of  the  heart ;  no  eye  but  the  eye  of  God 
can  discern  the  motives  for  human  action.  Hence  the  law 
wisely  says  that  a  man's  motives  shall  be  judged  from  his 
acts,  so  that  if  one  kill  another  suddenly,  without  any  pro 
vocation,  the  law  implies  malice.  If  a  man  uses  a  deadly 
weapon  it  is  presumed  he  intended  to  commit  murder,  and  in 
general  the  law  presumes  a  man  to  intend  the  natural  conse 
quences  of  his  act.  Were  there  nothing  more  against  the 
accused  than  the  occurrences  of  the  morning  of  July  2,  the 
evidence  of  his  crime  would  be  complele,  and  you  would  be 
authorized  to  conclude  that  he  feloniously,  wilfully  and  with 
malice  aforethought  did  kill  and  murder  James  A.  Garfield. 
But  crime  is  never  natural.  The  man  who  attempts  to  violate 


IJ4  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

the  laws  of  God  and  society  goes  counter  to  the  ordinary 
course  of  human  action.  He  is  a  world  to  himself.  He  is 
against  society,  against  organization,  and  of  necessity  his 
action  can  never  be  measured  by  the  rules  governing  men  in 
the  everyday  transactions  of  life.  No  criminal  ever  violated 
the  laws  who  did  not  leave  the  traces  of  his  crime  distinct 
and  clear  when  once  discovered.  So  in  this  case  we  can 
only  add  to  the  enormity  of  this  offence  by  showing  you 
its  origin,  its  conception  and  the  plans  adopted  for  its 
execution. 

One  year  ago  the  nth  day  of  the  present  month  the 
prisoner  addressed  to  Hon.  William  M.  Evarts,  then  Secretary 
of  State,  the  following  letter: — 

NEW  YORK,  Nov.  n,  i8So. 
HON.  WILLIAM  M.  EVARTS:— 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  wish  to  ask  you  a  question.  If  President  Garfield 
appoints  Mr.  A  to  a  foreign  mission  does  that  supersede  President  Hayes' 
commission  for  the  same  appointment?  Do  not  all  foreign  Ministers 
appointed  by  President  Hayes  retire  on  March  4  next?  Please  answer  me 
at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  at  your  earliest  convenience.  I  am  solid  for 
General  Garfield,  and  may  get  an  important  appointment  from  him  next 
spring.  Yours  very  truly,  CHARLES  GUITEAU. 

At  this  time,  over  a  year  ago,  it  will  be  seen  he  had  in  his 
mind  an  application  for  and  expectation  of  receiving  an  office 
under  the  approaching  administration.  In  pursuance  of  that 
hope  the  prisoner  came  to  this  city  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
5th  of  last  March,  no  doubt  believing  that  he  would  receive 
at  the  hands  of  an  administration  he  supposed  he  had  assisted 
in  placing  in  power  such  recognition  as,  according  to  his  own 
opinion  of  his  merits,  he  deserved.  He  was  outspoken  and 
earnest  in  his  demands,  and  in  his  various  conversations 
seemed  to  feel  confident  of  success. 

From  his  own  letters,  it  is  evident  that  during  October  and 
January  he  had  written  to  President  Garfield,  calling  attention 
to  his  services  in  the  campaign,  and  soliciting  an  appoint 
ment.  On  the  8th  of  March,  he  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
President,  calling  attention  to  his  desire  to  be  appointed  to 


ASSASS/.V  OF  PRESIDENT  CARFIELD. 


'75 


the  Paris  Consulate.      On  the  nth  of  March,  he  wrote  Secre 
tary  Elaine  the  following  letter  : 

March  //,  1881. 
Senator  ELAINE  : 

In  October  and  January  last  I  wrote  General  Garfield  touching  the 
Austrian  Mission,  and  I  think  he  has  filed  my  application  and  is  favorably 
inclined.  Since  then  I  have  concluded  to  apply  for  the  Consul-Generalship  at 
Paris  instead  of  the  Austrian  Mission,  as  I  prefer  Paris  to  Vienna.  I  spoke 
to  the  General  about  it  and  he  said  your  indorsement  would  help  it,  as  it 
was  in  your  department.  I  think  I  have  a  just  claim  to  your  help  on  the 
strength  of  this  speech  [a  speech  was  enclosed]  which  was  sent  to  our 
leading  editors  and  orators  in  August.  It  was  about  the  first  shot  on  the 
rebel  war  claim  idea,  and  it  was  the  idea  that  elected  General  Garfield. 

Mr.    Walker,   the    present    Consul    at   Paris,    was   appointed   through 
Mr.  Evarts,  and  I  presume  he  has  no  expectation  of  being  retained.     I 
will  talk  with  you  about  this  as  soon  as  I  can  get  a  chance.     There  is 
nothing  against  me.     I  claim  to  be  a  gentleman  and  a  Christian. 
Yours,  very  respectfully,* 

CHARLES  GUITEAU. 

He  followed  up  this  communication  by  persistent  personal 
appeals,  and  by  writing  notes  and  letters,  urging  in  various 
ways  his  claims  for  this  position.  •  Not  only  did  he  besiege 
the  Secretary  of  State  and  the  officers  of  the  department, 
but  the  President  and  the  officers  of  the  Executive  Mansion. 
Generally  treated  writh  courtesy  and  kindly  dismissed,  his 
wants  and  necessities  became  more  persistent  and  determined. 
On  the  8th  of  March,  he  commenced  writing  to  the  Presi 
dent,  stating  his  reasons  why  the  position  should  be  given 
him,  and  urging  in  various  ways  his  claims  for  the  place. 
When  his  application  reached  the  President  he  was  politely 
referred,  as  were  all  other  applicants  for  similar  appoint 
ments,  to  the  Department  of  State,  the  recommendation  of 
which  was  usual  for  positions  of  the  grade  he  sought.  He 
frequently  saw  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  had  various  con 
versations  with  Mr.  Hitt,  the  assistant  secretary,  in  which  he 
urged  his  claims  upon  their  attention.  Wearied  of  his  impor 
tunity,  the  Secretary  of  State  on  Saturday,  the  i4th  of  May, 
according  to  the  prisoner's  statement  in  writing,  said  to  him : 


176  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  QUITE AU, 

"  Never  speak  to  me  again  about  the  Paris  Consulship  as 
long  as  you  live." 

On  the  following  morning,  he  wrote  to  the  President,  in 
forming  him  of  Mr.  Elaine's  statement  and  saying  he  was 
satisfied  Mr.  Elaine  was  endeavoring  to  run  the  State  Depart 
ment  in  the  interests  of  his  own  candidacy  for  the  Presi 
dency  in  1884,  and  appealing  to  the  President  direct  for  an 
immediate  order  for  his  appointment.  During  this  time  he 
continued  to  visit  the  Executive  Mansion  and  urged  and  in 
sisted  on  an  opportunity  to  see  the  President. 

Finally,  it  became  necessary,  in  order  to  avoid  his  pre 
sumptuous  intrusion,  to  prohibit  his  entrance  into  the  White 
House.  Soured  and  indignant  at  this  treatment,  disap 
pointed  and  enraged,  on  the  23d  of  May  he  wrote  President 
Garfield  a  letter  in  which,  in  the  light  of  the  fearful  tragedy 
which  followed,  it  needs  no  discerning  eye  to  detect  the 
threat  of  murder.  It  was  as  follows  : 

Private. 

General  GARFIELD — I  have  been  trying  to  be  your  friend.  I  do  not 
know  whether  you  appreciate  it  or  not,  but  I  am  moved  to  call  your  atten 
tion  to  the  remarkable  letter  from  Mr.  Elaine,  which  I  have  just  noticed. 
According  to  Mr.  Farwell,  of  Chicago,  Elaine  is  a  vindictive  politician  and 
an  evil  genius,  and  you  will  have  no  peace  till  you  get  rid  of  him.  This 
letter  shows  that  Mr.  Blaine  is  a  wicked  man,  and  you  ought  to  demand 
his  immediate  resignation  ;  otherwise  you  and  the  republican  party  will 
come  to  grief.  I  will  see  you  in  the  morning  if  I  can,  and  talk  with 
you.  Very  respectfully,  CHARLES  GUITEAU. 

May  2j. 

You  see  in  these  sentences  his  bitterness  of  spirit,  inspired 
by  the  treatment  he  claims  to  have  received  at  the  hands  of 
the  Secretary  of  State,  and  the  demand  for  his  removal,  and 
threat,  if  it  was  not  done,  what  would  result;  yet  we  will  find 
that,  on  the  2ist  of  March,  he  wrote  to  Secretary  Elaine: 
"lam  very  glad  personally  that  the  President  selected  you 
for  his  Premier.  *  *  *  You  are  the  man  above  all  others 
for  the  place." 

That  is  one  chapter  in  the  history  of  this  crime.     The  let- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


77 


ter,  standing  alone  and  independent  of  any  other  circum 
stances,  would  not  of  itself  attract  attention  to  its  peculiar  and 
significent  expressions,  but  it  will  be  shown  that  among  the 
papers  left  by  this  man  for  publication  is  found  one  dated 
the  i6th  of  June,  1881,  in  which  he  uses  this  significant  lan 
guage  :  "  I  conceived  the  idea  of  removing  the  President 
four  \veeks  ago. ' ' 

He  knew,  and  well  knew,  that  he  must  hang  some  screen 
in  front  of  the  real  motive  for  his  crime.  His  heart  was 
wicked  enough  to  conceive  from  its  own  malignity  the  crime 
itself;  but  his  shrewdness  and  vanity  demanded  that  the  pub 
lic  should  not  gaze  upon  his  real  motive.  This  will  account 
for  many  of  the  extraordinary  circumstances  connected  with 
the  crime.  This  will  explain  many  of  his  lofty  and  egotis 
tical  utterances 

It  is  true,  there  was  a  period  during  this  time  when  there 
existed  dissentions  in  the  party  in  power.  It  is  a  well-known 
fact  that,  as  between  the  Executive  and  certain  prominent  and 
eminent  men,  there  was  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
course  to  be  pursued  and  the  policy  to  be  inaugurated  by  the 
administration,  then  just  in  its  commencement.  It  is  true, 
there  were  grave  differences  of  opinion  and  earnest  expressions 
of  sentiment  on  questions  of  great  gravity  and  importance  to 
the  peace  and  welfare  of  the  country,  and,  as  attendant  upon 
those,  there  were  frequent  utterances  of  bitterness  by  partisans 
on  either  side.  To  this  man's  wicked  and  revengeful  mind  it 
immediately  occurred:  "  Here  is  the  opportunity  to  commit 
this  crime,  to  revenge  myself,  and  shelter  my  action  under 
the  claim  that  it  was  the  outgrowth  of  the  present  strife," 
and  he  systematically  and  cunningly  prepared  an  apology  and 
defense  of  his  crime  in  accordance  with  this. 

You  will  learn  by  the  testimony  that  will  be  presented  to 
you,  that,  from  the  time  of  his  arrival  in  this  city  and  until  he 
had  lost  the  expectation  of  favors  to  be  received,  and  made  up 
his  mind  to  kill  the  President — a  period  of  nearly  three 
months — he  was  an  earnest,  so-called,  Garfield  man.  He  an- 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


nounced  to  the  President,  as  will  be  shown  by  his  own  letter, 
his  devotion  and  fealty  to  him.  He  desired  constantly  to 
impress  upon  the  President  that  he  was  for  him  as  against 
every  one  else.  You  will  find  him,  on  May  7,  announcing  to 
the  President  that  in  the  contest  going  on  he  stood  by  him. 
But  when  he  had  lost  all  hopes  of  the  appointment  desired 
under  the  administration  of  President  Garfield,  and  all  expec 
tation  of  official  recognition  from  this  source,  he  resolved  to 
seize  upon  the  pretext  afforded  by  the  situation  to  gratify  his 
revenge,  to  kill  the  President  and  shield  his  real  motives 
from  the  public.  After  this  had  been  fully  settled  in  his 
mind,  with  his  knowledge  of  the  world,  with  his  experience 
of  human  affairs,  with  his  observations  of  society,  for  he  is  a 
man  of  no  ordinary  ability  in  these  directions,  he  carefully 
determined  to  make  the  situation  of  advantage  to  himself,  and 
when  he  had  fully  conceived  this  idea,  when  it  had  fastened 
itself  on  his  mind,  he  went  to  work  to  accomplish  his  purpose 
with  a  spirit  of  vindictiveness,  with  a  cool  determination, 
that  has  scarcely  a  parallel  in  the  annals  of  crime.  How 
many  efforts  he  made  to  do  this  deed,  or  when  and  where  he 
decided  upon  the  exact  method  of  its  commission,  no 
human  mind  can  tell. 

On  the  8th  day  of  June,  he  borrowed  from  an  acquaintance 
in  this  city  $15,  representing  that  he  was  out  of  money  and 
desired  the  amount  to  pay  his  board-bill.  After  procuring 
this  loan  he  at  once  visited  the  store  of  Mr.  O'Meara,  on  the 
corner  of  Fifteenth  and  F  streets,  for  the  purpose  of  purchas 
ing  a  weapon.  In  this,  as  in  all  other  acts  connected  with 
the  crime,  he  displayed  the  malignity  of  his  determination 
and  the  wickedness  of  his  motives.  He  asked  for  a  pistol  of 
the  largest  calibre  and  one  that  would  do  the  most  effective 
work,  and  was  shown  and  purchased  the  pistol  which  he 
finally  used  —  a  weapon  terrible  to  behold,  carrying  a  bullet 
of  the  largest  size  ;  a  weapon  that  was  self-cocking  in  order 
that  there  might  be  no  delay  in  its  use  when  an  emergency 
occurred.  How  for  twenty-four  days  he  carried  that  deadly 


ASSASS/Ar  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


179 


weapon,  and  how  often  he  dogged  the  footsteps  of  the  un 
suspecting  President ;  how  he  watched  his  carriage  \  how  he 
made  his  arrangements  at  the  church ;  how  he  followed  him 
from  the  residence  of  Mr.  Elaine,  watching  and  waiting  for 
the  fatal  hour,  he  alone  can  tell.  But  on  the  morning  of  the 
1 8th  of  June  he  ascertained  from  publications  in  the  newspa 
pers  that  the  President  would  go  to  Long  Branch,  and  he  de 
termined  to  kill  him  at  the  depot.  How  he  went  there  fully 
prepared  for  that  purpose  and  was  deterred  from  its  accom 
plishment  his  own  words  best  tell.  Returning  to  his  room  he 
wrote : 

WASHINGTON,  Saturday  Evening,  June  18,  1881. 

I  intended  to  remove  the  President  this  morning  at  the  depot  as  he  took 
the  cars  for  Long  Branch,  but  Mrs.  Garfield  looked  so  thin  and  clung  so 
tenderly  to  the  President's  arm  that  my  heart  failed  me  to  part  them,  and  I 
decided  to  take  him  alone.  It  will  be  no  worse  for  Mrs.  Garfield  to  part 
with  her  husband  this  way  than  by  a  natural  death.  He  is  liable  to  go  at 
any  time,  any  way.  C.  G. 

And  after  this  came  another  period  of  watching  and  wait, 
ing.  It  might  be  a  story  of  thrilling  interest  to  know  how 
often  the  fatal  danger  threatened  the  lamented  dead,  and 
how  often  while  buoyant  with  life  the  shadow  of  death 
haunted  him.  But,  again,  we  nre  in  the  field  of  conjecture 
until  we  come  to  the  morning  of  the  murder,  the  occurrences 
of  which  I  have  already  described,  and  this  completes  the 
story  of  this  crime.  This  ends  the  recital  of  this  national 
bereavement,  for  it  cannot  be  forgotten  that  the  effects  of 
that  fatal  shot  were  felt  throughout  the  land  ;  that  not  only 
one  family  mourned,  but  around  every  hearthstone  and  about 
every  fireside  there  hung  a  shadow.  And  it  is  not  surprising 
that  many  for  a  time  forgot  the  law  and  doubted  Providence, 
for  it  seemed  so  terrible  that  this  man,  in  the  full  tide  of  his 
career  of  eminence  and  usefulness,  should  fall  murdered 
without  warning  or  notice. 

:  No  verdict  of  yours  can  recall  him.  He  "sleeps  the  sleep  that 
knows  no  waking,"  on  the  peaceful  banks  of  Lake  Erie,  whose 


jgo  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

limpid  waters  wash  the  boundaries  of  his  native  State,  over 
looking  the  city  he  loved  so  well,  and  beneath  the  sod  of  that 
State  whose  people  had  crowned  his  life  with  the  highest 
honors.  It  is  too  late  to  call  that  husband  back  to  the 
bereaved  wife  and  fatherless  children.  For  that  waiting  little 
mother,  whose  face  will  never  fade  from  the  nation's  memory, 
there  will  be  no  relief  in  this  world.  The  fatal  deed  is  done, 
and  its  horrors  and  griefs  must  remain. 

You  have  each  been  asked  whether  you  were  governed  by 
religious  convictions.  Upon  your  oaths  you  have  answered 
affirmatively.  Eighteen  hundred  years  ago  it  was  written,  by 
the  pen  of  inspiration,  as  the  law  of  that  merciful  God  whom 
you  revere  :  "  Woe  unto  the  world  because  of  offenses,  for  it 
must  needs  be  that  offenses  come ;  but  woe  to  that  man  by 
whom  the  offense  cometh  :  it  were  better  for  him  that  a  mill 
stone  were  hanged  about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were  drowned 
in  the  depths  of  the  sea."  And  the  honest,  patriotic,  law- 
abiding  people  of  this  country  are  waiting  for  your  verdict, 
to  see  whether  the  man  by  whom  this  great  offense  was  qpm- 
mitted  shall  not  suffer  the  just  and  merited  punishment  of  the 
law. 

The  conclusion  of  the  District- Attorney's  speech 
was  greeted  with  applause.  Mr.  Robinson  stated 
that  the  defense  reserved  its  opening,  where 
upon  Secretary  Elaine  was  called  to  the  witness- 
stand,  and  having  been  sworn,  he  made  answer  as 
follows : 

O.  What  is  your  name  and  business  ?  A.  My 
name  is  James  G.  Elaine,  at  present  Secretary  of 
State  for  the  United  States. 

Q.  You  were  acquainted  with  James  A.  Gar- 
field  ?  A.  I  was  acquainted  with  him  from  the 
year  1863  until  the  hour  of  his  death. 


ASSASSIN1  OF  PRESIDENT  GAR  FIELD.  l  g  j 

Q.  Are  you  acquainted  with  the  prisoner  at  the 
bar;    have   you    ever    seen 
him?     A.  I    saw   him    occa 
sionally  during  the  months 
of  March,  April  and  May; 
not  so  frequently  in  May  as 
the  previous  months. 

Q.  Were  you  in  company 
with  the  President  at  the 
time  of  the  shooting  ?  A.  I 

was  at  his  side.  HON.  JAMES  G.  ELAINE. 

Q.  You  met  the  President  by  appointment  on 
the  morning  of  the  assassination  ?  A.  Yes,  sir. 
On  the  night  of  July  the  ist  I  was  engaged  with 
the  President  until  near  midnight  on  public  busi 
ness.  On  parting,  he  suggested  that  I  had  better 
call  and  see  him  in  the  morning  before  he  left,  be 
cause  there  might  be  some  matters  to  which  he 

o 

desired  to  call  my  attention  ;  I  went  to  the  White 
House,  in  the  morning,  reaching  there  at  9  o'clock, 
not  later  than  three  minutes  past ;  I  was  detained 
some  little  time  in  conference  with  the  President 
in  the  Cabinet  room  and  library,  a  very  few  min 
utes  ;  I  then  started  with  him  for  the  depot,  he  rid 
ing  in  the  carriage  in  which  I  went  to  the  White 
House,  the  State  Department  carriage  in  daily  use 
by  myself,  following  out  of  the  White  House 
grounds  his  own  carriage,  in  which  his  children 
were  carried,  under  the  conduct  of  Colonel  Rock- 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  V.   GUITEAU, 


well  ;  we  rode  down  the  avenue  without  any 
noticeable  incident  and  at  a  moderate  speed  ;  on 
reaching"  the  depot  on  the  B  street  side  (the  ladies' 
entrance,  commonly  called),  we  sat  a  moment  fin 
ishing  the  subject  on  which  we  were  then  convers 
ing,  and  the  President  turned  around  to  say  good 
bye  ;  "  No,"  said  I,  "  I  will  escort  you  ;"  I  thought 
it  not  proper  that  the  President  should  go  entirely 
unattended;  "I  will  escort  you,"  I  said,  "and  be 
sides  I  wish  to  see  the  gentlemen  of  the  Cabinet 
who  are  going  to  leave  with  you  ;"  with  that  he 
alighted;  he  had  got  in,  of  course  at  the  White 
House,  and  that  brought  him  on  the  side  next  to 

c> 

the  pavement  at  the  depot,  and  as  the  carriage 
was  a  small  coupe  he  got  out  first  as  a  matter  of 
convenience  ;  he  took  my  arm  as  we  ascended  the 
steps  and  turned  on  the  left  (he  was  on  my  left) 
to  speak  to  some  one  —  I  think  a  police  officer,  the 
same  officer  who  had  told  us  that  we  had  ten  or 
twelve  minutes'  time  remaining. 

When  he  turned  to  speak  to  him  our  arms  be 
came  disengaged,  according  to  my  impression, 
and  as  we  walked  through  the  ladies'  waiting- 
room  we  were  not  arm-in-arm,  but  side  by  side  ; 
he  had  got  two-thirds  across  the  room,  when  sud 
denly,  without  any  premonition  whatever,  there 
was  a  very  loud  report  of  a  pistol  discharge,  fol 
lowed  in  a  very  brief  interval  by  a  second  shot  ; 
at  the  instant  I  first  heard  the  report,  it  occurred 
to  me  that  it  was  some  trouble  between  persons 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.     GUITEAU, 


to  whom  we  were  in  no  way  related,  some  such 
deed  of  violence,  and  I  touched  the  President  as 
though  to  hurry  him  on,  as  I  thought  there  might 
be  some  danger  to  his  person  or  my  own  ;  just  as 
I  did  that  the  President  kind  of  threw  his  hands 
up  and  said:  "My  God,  what  is  this?"  It  seemed 
to  have  been  almost  between  the  shots  that  he 
said  that;  of  course  in  so  exciting  and  horrible  a 
scene  I  can  only  give  an  impression,  not  an  abso 
lute  statement  ;  then  there  rushed  past  me  a  man  ; 
according  to  .my  recollection  he  passed  on  my 
right,  though  I  am  aware  that  this  statement  must 
be  taken  merely  as  my  impression  ;  I  immediately 
followed  after  the  man  instinctively  and  went,  I 
suppose,  the  distance  of  eight  feet;  I  remember  I 
stopped  just  outside  the  door  which  led  from  the 
ladies'  waiting-room  ;  then  the  shout  came  up, 
"  We  have  got  him  ;"  I  found  that  the  President 
had  quite  sunk  ;  he  was  sinking  as  I  left  ;  when  I 
got  nearly  back  to  him  (I  was  the  first  or  second 
person  who  got  back  to  him)  he  was  vomiting,  and 
I  think  at  that  moment  was  unconscious  ;  of  course, 
immediately  a  very  large  crowd  surrounded  him  ; 
and  mattresses  were  brought,  I  think  from  a  sleep 
ing-car,  and  he  was  removed  to  an  upper  room  in 
the  depot. 

Medical  aid  was  at  hand  as  soon  as  possible, 
and  an  examination  was  made.  He  was  returned 
to  the  White  House,  reaching  there,  I  should  say,  in 
about  fifty  minutes  or  possibly  an  hour.  I  know 


184  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

that  I  returned  to  my  own  room  and  wrote  a  dis 
patch  to  the  public,  especially  to  the  European 
public,  directing  it  to  Minister  Lowell,  at  London. 
In  that  dispatch  I  said  that  at  "  this  hour — twenty 
minutes  past  ten,  a.  m.,"  the  President  being  shot 
about  twenty  minutes  past  nine.  That  enabled 
me  to  identify  the  time  at  which  the  President  got 
to  the  White  House ;  he  got  there  about  the  time 
I  got  to  my  house,  possibly  a  little  before.  These 
are,  in  brief,  the  circumstances  connected  with  my 
observation ;  when,  in  the  upper  room  of  the 
depot,  there  was  a  gathering  around  of  the  Cabi 
net  Ministers,  who  immediately  repaired  there 
from  the  cars  ;  there  had  yet  been  no  report  made 
of  whom  it  was,  but  I  gave  information  that  the 
man  I  saw  run,  and  whom  I  went  after,  and  whom 
I  saw  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  police  was  Gui- 
teau  ;  I  recognized  the  man ;  I  made  that  state 
ment  to  the  Cabinet,  the  attending  surgeons  and 
General  Sherman,  before  the  police  had  discovered 
the  man.  Of  course,  the  shot  being  behind 
my  back,  I  did  not  see  him  with  the  pistol  in 
his  hand ;  he  did  not  in  running  have  the  pistol 
exposed. 

The  District-Attorney  then  produced  a  diagram 
of  the  depot  in  which  the  tragedy  occurred,  and 
at  his  request  the  witness  indicated  the  positions 
occupied  by  the  President  and  himself  at  the  time 
the  fatal  shot  was  fired ;  he  also  stated  that,  though 
the  second  shot  was  fired  immediately  after  the 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  l  g  ^ 

first,  it  did  not  follow  it  as  rapidly  as  shots  could 
be  fired  from  a  self-cocking  revolver. 

Q.  How  often  have  you  seen  the  prisoner,  to 
the  best  of  your  recollection  ?  A.  Very  often  ; 
numerical  statements  are  apt  to  be  exaggerated 
when  we  are  recalling  a  statement  of  this  kind; 
according  to  my  recollection  he  visited  the  State 
Department  twenty  or  twenty-five  times  ;  it  might 
possibly  not  be  over  ten,  but  eight  or  ten  visits  of 
that  kind  are  apt  to  make  the  impression  of  twenty 
or  twenty-five. 

O.  You  saw  him  personally  ?  A.  Yes,  very 
frequently. 

Q.  Was  he  an  applicant  for  an  office?  A.  He 
was  a  very  persistent  applicant  for  the  Consul- 
Generalship  at  Paris. 

Q,  Did  you  have  any  conversation  with  him  on 
that  subject?  A.  Several  times;  I  never  gave 
him  the  slightest  encouragement  that  he  would 

o  o 

receive  the  appointment. 

Q,  Do  you  recollect  ever  having  made  use  of 
any  particular  expression  to  him  with  regard  to 
that  appointment?  A.  I  rememher,  after  persistent 
and  repeated  visits  that  I  told  him  that  there  was 
in  my  judgment  no  prospect  whatever  of  his  re 
ceiving  the  appointment,  and  that  I  did  not  want 
him  to  continue  his  visits  ;  I  wanted  to  bring  them 
to  an  end  and  I  told  him  there  was  no  prospect 
whatever  of  his  receiving  it. 

After  the  identification  and  reading  of  certain 


1 86  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

letters  from  Guiteau,  pressing  his  application  for 
appointment,  the  direct  examination  of  Secretary 
Elaine  ended.  The  cross-examination  related  to 
the  position  of  the  parties  at  the  time  of  the 
shooting,  the  persistency  of  Guiteau  on  the 
appointment  question,  the  principles  upon  which 
appointments  were  made,  and  the  condition  of 
the  Republican  party  at  the  time  of  the  shooting, 
with  definitions  of  the  terms  "stalwart"  and 
"half-breed,"  after  which  the  noon  adjournment 
occurred. 

The  next  witness  called  was  Mr.  Simon  Cama- 
cho,  the  Venzuelan  Minister.  Before  having  the 
witness  sworn  the  District-Attorney  stated  that, 
under  the  law  governing  diplomatic  relations, 
Mr.  Camacho  could  not  be  subpoenaed  or  re 
quired  to  testify,  but  that  his  government  had 
given  him  instructions  to  appear  and  testify  just 
as  any  citizen  of  this  country. 

Mr.  Camacho  was  then  sworn  and  examined. 
He  spoke  with  a  strongly  marked  foreign  accent, 
so  that  it  was  rather  difficult  at  times  to  un 
derstand  him.  In  reply  to  questions  by  the  Dis 
trict-Attorney  he  testified,  in  substance,  as  fol 
lows  : — 

I  was  at  the  Baltimore  and  Potomac  Railroad 
Depot  in  this  city,  on  the  morning  of  the  2d  of 
July  last:  while  waiting  there  for  some  ladies 
whom  I  was  to  accompany  to  New  York  I  saw  a 
carnage,  and  in  the  carnage  I  saw  Mr.  Blaine 


ASSASSfJV  Of''  PRESIDENT'  GARF1ELD. 


189 


talking  with  a  gentleman  whom  I  did  not  then 
know  to  be  the  President ;  I  went  to  take  my 
place  in  the  cars,  and  then  came  back  to  the  wait 
ing-room  ;  I  heard  the  report  of  a  pistol  and 
turned  around  and  saw  one  man  firing  on  another  ; 
the  man  who  received  the  shot  fell  immediately, 
turning  his  face  a  little  to  the  right-hand  side  as  if 
to  see  who  shot  him,  and  extending  his  hands  so 
as  not  to  fall  hard  to  the  ground ;  immediately 
another  shot  was  fired,  with  a  very  short  interval 
between  the  first  and  second  shots;  then  I  saw 
Secretary  Elaine  run  toward  the  door  between 
the  ladies'  saloon  and  the  gentlemen's  saloon ;  I 
ran  toward  the  B  street  cloor ;  the  man  who  fired 
the  shot  had  run  toward  that  door,  and  he  turned 
around  again  and  I  met  him,  and  he  ran  toward 
the  principal  saloon ;  then  I  went  to  see  the  man 
who  had  been  shot,  and  met  for  the  first  time 
President  Garfield ;  I  saw  a  lady  putting  his  head 
upon  her  knee;, I  remained  there  until  they 
brought  a  mattress  and  put  him  on  it,  and  then  I 
had  to  leave,  because  the  ladies  were  waiting  .for 
me  in  the  car ;  I  saw  the  man  who  fired  the  pistol. 

O.  Do  you  recognize  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  as 
that  man  ?  A.  Indeed  I  do  :  that  is  the  man. 

Q.  Describe  how  he  was  holding  the  pistol 
when  he  fired.  A.  He  was  holding  it  low,  about 
three  or  four  yards  from  the  President's  back  ;  he 
fired  in  a  diagonal  position.  [The  witness  rolls  a 
sheet  of  paper  and  describes  how  the  pistol  was 


1 90 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


held.]     The  second  time  that  he  fired  the  Presi 
dent  was  already  down  and  the  bullet  passed. 

The  cross-examination  related  simply  to  the 
prisoner's  hat  and  his  style  of  wearing  it  at  the 
time  of  the  shooting. 

The  additional  witnesses  examined  were  Mrs. 
Sarah  B.  White,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  ladies' 
waiting-room  at  the  depot  at  the  time  of  the  shoot 
ing  ;  Mr.  Robert  A.  Parke,  the  ticket  agent  who 
arrested  Guiteau  ;  Judson  W.  Wheeler,  a  young 
man  from  Virginia  who  was  in  the  ladies'  waiting- 
room  ;  George  W.  Adams,  publisher  of  the  Wash 
ington  Evening  Star,  and  Jacob  P.  Smith,  janitor 
of  the  depot.  They  related  the  facts  of  the  shoot 
ing  from  their  several  points  of  view,  but  did  not 
add  any  material  points  to  the  evidence  already 
taken. 

The  next  day,  Friday,  November  i8th,  was 
ushered  in  by  a  demonstration  from  Guiteau.  As  he 
entered  the  court-room,  Mr.  Scoville  was  making 
an  explanation,  when  Guiteau,  flashing  with  an 
ger,  cried  out  excitedly :  "  Mr.  Scoville  talks  one 
thing  to  me  in  private  and  another  in  public.  Last 
night  he  spent  an  hour  in  jail  with  me  and  showed 
a  different  spirit  from  now.  That  is  his  way.  I 
do  not  propose  to  put  my  case  in  his  hands.  He 
is  no  lawyer  and  no  politician.  I  want  first-class 
talent  in  this  business,  and  I  am  going  to  have  it 
or  there's  going  to  be  trouble.  Mind  your  busi 
ness,"  he  continued,  fiercely  struggling  with  the 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  j  g  j 

deputy    marshals    who   were  trying  to   suppress 
him. 

Mr.  Scoville  :  "  Yesterday  the  prisoner  told  me 
that  he  had  another  communication  he  intended  to 
give  to  the  press." 

"I  do  not  care  a  snap  about  its  going  out,"  in 
terjected  the  prisoner  excitedly.  "That  settles  it." 

"  Keep  quiet,"  said  Mr.  Scoville,  angrily.  "  I 
told  him,  in  order  to  prevent  its  getting  into  the 
hands  of  the  reporters,  that  I  would  see  him  in 
jail  about  it.  I  went  to  the  jail  and  he  kept  it  in 
his  pocket." 

"  I  gave  it  to  you  myself,"  broke  in  Guiteau. 

"  I  went  there,"  continued  Mr.  Scoville,  "  and 
spent  an  hour  suggesting  different  points  to  pre 
vent  its  getting  out." 

"  You've  got  the  document  and  you  can  keep 
it,"  exclaimed  the  prisoner. 

"  If  you  say  you  will  not  give  it  out  ?"  began 
Mr.  Scoville,  inquiringly. 

"  I  represent  myself  here,"  was  the  loud  reply 
of  the  prisoner. 

Mr.  Scoville  was  evidently  getting  disgusted 
with  the  prisoner's  conduct,  and  it  was  in  tones  of 
annoyance  that  he  said  to  the  Court :  "  I  do  not 
propose  to  be  interrupted  here  by  the  prisoner 
every  day,  nor  spend  an  hour  or  two  at  the  jail 
every  day  to  prevent  the  prisoner  giving  out  com 
munications." 

Struggling  with  the  deputy  marshals  Guiteau 


192  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   QUITE  A  U, 

exclaimed  wildly,  addressing  to  Mr.  Scoville  his 
remarks,  which  were  uttered  very  rapidly  :  "  You 
are  no  criminal  lawyer,  and  I  have  no  confidence 
in  your  capacity.  I  propose  to  get  two  or  three 
of  the  first-class  lawyers  in  America  to  manage 
my  case.  And  I  want  to  say  a  word  upon  the 
law,"  cried  the  prisoner,  addressing  the  Court. 
"  If  you  expel  me  from  the  court-room  the  Court 
in  bane  will  reverse  you.  If  the  Court  puts  me 
out — confounded  fools  you,"  he  cried,  turning  and 
struggling  with  the  deputy  marshals  who  were 
pressing  him  into  his  seat  from  which  he  had  half- 
risen,  "  the  Court  will  understand  that  he  will  be 
reversed  in  the  Court  in  bane.  Mind  your  busi 
ness  ;  you  ain't  got  no  sense,"  he  said  again,  turn 
ing  upon  the  deputies,  with  whom  he  continued  to 
struggle  violently  for  several  moments. 

The  Court :  "  On  several  occasions  in  the 
courts  in  the  United  States  the  prisoner  has  been, 
on  account  of  disorderly  conduct,  removed  from 
court  and  the  case  continued  in  his  absence. 

The  first  witness  sworn,  after  the  prisoner  had 
subsided,  was  Joseph  K.  Sharp,  assistant  train 
master  of  the  Baltimore  and  Potomac  Railroad, 
who  narrated  what  he  had  seen  of  the  shooting 
of  President  Garfield.  His  testimony  was  not  of 
special  importance. 

The  next  witness  was  Miss  Ella  M.  Ridgley,  a 
young  lady  who  was  at  the  depot  on  the  morning 
of  the  2d  of  July.  She  had  been  standing  at  the 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J>  QUITE A U,  193 

B  street  door  waiting  for  a  street  car,  when  she 
saw  the  prisoner.  A  hackman  came  up  to  him 
and  asked  him  where  he  wanted  to  be  driven  to ; 
the  prisoner  said  to  the  cemetery,  and  told  him  to 
wait  there  till  he  came  out.  This  was  about  four 
minutes  before  the  President  and  Secretary  Elaine 
entered  the  depot.  Then  she  saw  the  prisoner  in 
the  ladies'  waiting-room,  with  his  ri^ht  hand  in 

o  o 

his  pocket;  he  drew  out  a  weapon,  and  witness 
noticed  the  sunlight  shining  on  the  barrel,  although 
she  did  not  realize  at  the  moment  that  it  was  a 
pistol.  The  first  shot  was  fired,  and  then  the 
prisoner  took  two  or  three  steps  nearer  to  the 
President  and  fired  a  second  shot  when  about  four 
feet  from  him.  On  the  first  shot  the  President 
threw  up  his  hands  and  half  fell  back.  He  kept 
sinking  all  the  time  as  the  second  shot  was  fired. 
She  was  not  sure  whether  the  second  shot  touched 
him  at  all.  When  prisoner  fired  the  second  shot 
he  stepped  to  the  B  street  door  and  witness  lost 
siofht  of  him,  as  her  attention  was  directed  to  the 

o 

President.  When  she  next  saw  prisoner  the  offi 
cers  were  passing  through  the  room  with  him. 

Joshua  Davis,  who  was  present  at  the  shooting, 
and  Wm.  S.  Crawford,  driver  of  a  baggage  wagon, 
gave  their  testimony,  without  presenting  anything 
new  or  important.  Then  came  John  R.  Scott, 
special  officer  at  the  railroad  depot.  He  was  the 
first  officer  to  reach  the  prisoner  after  Parke 
seized  him ;  the  prisoner  said  that  he  wanted  to 


194  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

go  to  jail  and  that  he  had  a  letter  which  he  wanted 
sent  to  General  Sherman  ;  witness,  however,  did 
not  see  any  letter  in  his  hand  ;  they  took  him  out 
of  the  Sixth  street  door  to  the  station-house,  and 
when  passing  Sixth  and  B  streets  he  looked  up 
and  said:  "I  am  a  stalwart,  and  Arthur  is  now 
President  of  the  United  States." 

He  kept  repeating  about  the  letter  that  he 
wanted  sent  to  General  Sherman,  and  he  said : 
"I  am  a  gentleman  and  a  lawyer." 

At  the  station-house  prisoner  was  searched,  and 
a  packet  of  papers,  some  change  and  a  revolver 
were  taken  out  of  his  pocket.  [Here  the  revol 
ver  was  identified  and  exhibited  to  the  jury,  three 
of  the  chambers  being  still  loaded.] 

The  cross-examination  developed  nothing  new, 
and  the  testimony  of  the  next  witness,  Edmund 
L.  DuBarry  was  brief  and  unimportant.  He  was 
followed  by  Patrick  Kearney,  police  officer,  who 
gave  a  graphic  account  of  the  occurrence,  speak 
ing  slowly  and  with  a  strong  Irish  brogue.  His 
narrative  was  as  follows: — 

The  first  time  I  saw  the  prisoner  was  at  five 
minutes  to  nine,  on  the  morning  of  the  2d  of 
July;  I  saw  him  standing  with  two  hackmen,  one 
white  and  one  colored ;  they  were  both  "  bucking 
a  job"  from  him — that  is,  soliciting  him  for  a  job; 
then  I  saw  the  President's  carriage  coming  around 
from  Pennsylvania  Avenue  to  the  B  Street 
entrance ;  I  went  around  and  stood  by  the  lamp- 


ASSASSfA'  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


195 


post ;  the  President's  carriage  stopped  outside  the 
curbstone,  and  the  President  had  his  hand  on  Mr. 
Elaine's  shoulder;  the  President  said  to  me: 
"How  much  time  have  I  got?"  I  took  out  my 
watch  and  showed  him  that  he  had  ten  minutes ; 
he  made  no  reply  and  I  went  back  to  the  lamp 
post;  after  a  while  Mr.  Elaine  got  out  of  the 
carriage  and  went  into  the  depot  out  of  my  sight ; 
the  President  then  got  out  and  walked  ahead ; 
as  he  moved  past  I  took  up  my  hat  and  saluted 
him  ;  he  went  up  as  far  as  the  third  step  and  then 
turned  around  smiling,  lifted  his  hat  to  me  and 
went  in  to  the  depot  out  of  my  sight ;  then  I  was 
moving  down  Sixth  Street,  when  I  heard  the 
report  of  a  pistol  ;  I  turned  back  quickly  and  ran 
down  to  the  B  Street  door,  and  then  I  heard 
another  report  and  a  scream. 

I  went  to  the  door,  and  the  first  thing  I  saw  was 
the  prisoner  coming  against  me  ;  I  grabbed  him ; 
said  he,  u  I  want  to  send  this  letter  to  General  Sher 
man  immediately  ;"  "  Hold  up,"  said  I,  "  there  are 
two  shots  fired,  and  you  are  coming  from  the 
direction  in  which  they  were  fired ;  I  will  hold  you 
to'  know  the  result ;  if  you  are  in  the  wrong  I  will 
keep  you,  and  if  not  you  can  get  off;  but  now  I 
put  you  under  arrest ;"  then  I  turned  his  back  to 
the  door;  the  first  man  that  I  saw  was  Du Barry 
(the  last  witness);  he  was  right  by  my  side;  then 
I  could  see  the  smoke  rising  out  of  the  carpet, 
and  saw  that  I  could  not  advance  in  that  way  with 


1C)  6  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

him  ;  the  prisoner  jerked,  and  pulled  me  down  to 
ward  the  heater  in  the  ladies'  room,  and  I  pulled 
out  my  club  to  hit  him,  but  I  thought  of  the  Grand 
Jury— [Laughter.]— and  not  knowing  what  the 
man  had  done  I  did  not  hit  him,  but  I  gave  him  a 
good  shaking  and  brought  him  along  ;  after  that 
he  went  along  with  me  ;  when  I  stopped  he 
stopped  and  when  I  moved  he  moved ;  we  went 
out  of  the  ladies'  room  into  the  main  room  and 
stood  by  the  indicator ;  one  or  two  men  passed  by 
and  tapped  the  prisoner  on  the  shoulder  and  said, 
"  I  arrest  you  ;"  I  said  nothing,  but  I  thought  they 
were  fools,  because  I  had  arrested  him  at  the  door 
and  brought  him  back  ;  Parke  was  standing  at  the 
jamb  of  the  door  near  the  ticket  office  with  a  linen 
duster  on  him  and  his  hands  behind  his  back  as 
mildly  as  now.  [Laughter.]  [The  point  about 
this  is  that  Parke  testified  on  the  stand  that  he  was 
the  first  to  seize  Guiteau,  and  that  he  held  him 
until  Officers  Scott  and  Kearney  came  and  took 
him  in  charge.]  The  prisoner  passed  Parke  at 
the  corner,  and  he  and  I  went  and  stood  by  the 
indicator ;  then  Parke  advanced  toward  the  ticket 
office ;  I  was  standing  along  with  the  prisoner,  and 
there  was  a  crowd  in  a  circle  around  us ;  I  saw 
Lowry  snatch  the  paper  the  prisoner  held  in  his 
hand;  then  Parke,  the  ticket  agent,  made  a  run 
and  grabbed  at  Guiteau  and  threw  his  hat  off. 
[Laughter.]  I  lifted  the  hat  up  and  put  it  right  on 
the  prisoner's  head  again;  then  Scott  came  from 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


197 


the  platform  over  to  where  I  was  with  Guiteau, 
and  got  hold  of  his  wrist  and  twisted  it ;  Guiteau 
complained  and  asked  him  not  to  break  his  wrist ; 
as  he  did  not  repeat  the  complaint  I  said  nothing ; 
after  Parke  made  the  grab  at  Guiteau  he  said, 
*  That  is  the  man  who  shot  the  President ;"  that 
was  the  first  I  knew  of  what  had  happened ;  I  did 
not  know  until  then  that  the  President  or  any 
other  man  had  been  shot ;  I  took  the  prisoner  out 
of  the  Sixth  street  door,  and  when  we  came  to 
the  sewer  trap  in  the  street  he  said  : 

'*!  did  it;  I  will  go  to  jail  for  it.  Arthur  is 
President  and  I  am  a  stalwart/' 

Scott  and  me  took  him  along  to  Pennsylvania 
avenue  and  then  we  took  an  oblique  direction 
eastward  until  we  came  to  Mount  Vernon  House, 
and  then  we  walked  alono-  until  we  crot  to  Police 

o  o 

Headquarters,  on  Four-and-a-half  street;  when  I 
went  in  I  sung  out,  "  this  man  killed  (or  shot)  the 
President;"  Lieutenant  Eckloff  says,  "You  are 
giving  us  taffy."  [Laughter.]  I  said  "  No  ;"  then 
I  took  the  pistol  out  of  the  prisoner's  pocket  and 
laid  it  on  the  table,  and  then  two  pieces  of  silver, 
and  then  when  I  went  for  these  letters  he 
kicked. 

Q.  He  what?  asked  the  District- Attorney,  with 
a  puzzled  expression  of  countenance.  A.  He 
resisted,  and  I  was  going  to  throw  him ;  then  one 
of  the  officers  catched  him  by  the  arm  and  held 
him  till  I  got  them  letters  from  him ;  he  said  that 


198  'TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  %     GUITEAU, 

he  wanted  them  letters  to  go  to  Byron  Andrews, 
on  Fourteenth  street ;  Lieutenant  Eckloff  asked 
him  if  he  had  anything  to  say  ;  "  I  have  nothing  to 
say,"  said  he,  "  the  papers  speak  for  themselves  ;" 
I  asked  him  what  his  name  was  ;  he  said,  "  Charles 
Guiteau,  of  Illinois,  a  theologian  and  a  lawyer;" 
after  I  got  through  his  pockets  I  went  to  search 
him  about  the  breast ;  he  said,  "  Don't  get  excited; 
take  your  time  ;  you  have  plenty  of  time  to  search 
me  ;"  he  was  put  into  a  cell  for  about  ten  minutes 
and  then  he  was  sent  to  jail ;  I  never  saw  him 
again  until  I  saw  him  here. 

Mr.  Scoville,  in  cross-examination,  asked : 
Did  Parke  ever  touch  him  until  you  brought  him 
into  the  main  room  ? 

Witness,  solemnly:  Never,  so  help  me  God, 
never;  it  was  up  by  the  heater  that  Parke 
rushed  at  him,  grabbed  at  him,  knocked  off  his 
hat,  and  said.  "I  seize  the  assassin."  [Loud 
laughter.] 

All  that  I  knew  was  that  somebody  was  hurt; 
on  the  way  to  headquarters  the  prisoner  spoke  to 
me  once  or  twice  about  his  fear  of  being  hurt,  and 
I  says  to  him:  "  Now,  the  quicker  you  and  me  get 
to  headquarters  the  better  for  both  of  us  ;"  I  never 
had  no  trouble  with  him  after  that. 

When  Mr.  Scoville  closed  the  cross-examination, 
Guiteau  said  in  his  usual  excited  manner:  "Allow 
me  to  examine  the  witness ;  he  comes  nearer  the 
truth  than  any  one  else  who  has  been  on  the  stand." 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  \  99 

f 

Mr.  Scoville  succeeded  in  suppressing  the 
prisoner,  and  then  he  further  examined  the  witness 
as  to  whether  he  was  much  excited  when  he 
arrested  the  prisoner.  No,  said  the  witness  ; 
when  I  catched  that  man  I  did  not  know  what  he 
had  done  ;  I  knew  that  there  were  two  shots  fired 
and  that  he  was  running  from  the  direction  where 
the  shots  were  fired. 

Prisoner:  As  a  matter  of  fact  I  was  stand 
ing  still,  and  the  witness  came  up  and  seized  me 
by  the  wrist.  I  had  just  got  my  pistol  put  up,  and 
you  (addressing  the  witness)  seized  me  simulta 
neously.  I  told  the  officer  that  I  wanted  to  go  to 
jail  at  once.  I  made  no  disposition  to  escape  at 
all. 

Witness:  No;  I  will  say  that  for  you. 
After  the  difficulty  in  the  corner  of  the  room  you 
gave  up  and  went  along  with  me  and  stood  by 
me  all  the  way  to  headquarters.  Is  not  that  so  ? 

Prisoner:  Yes  sir.     [Laughter.] 

Thompson  H.  Alexander  was  the  next  witness, 
but  nothing  new  or  important  was  developed  by 
his  testimony.  After  the  recess,  Guiteau  ad 
dressed  the  Court  saying:  I  understand,  your 
Honor,  that  Judge  Magruder,  of  Maryland,  is 
willing  to  assist  in  the  defense.  I  hereby  publicly 
invite  him  to  meet  me  here  on  Monday  at  the 
trial.  I  do  not  know  whether  Mr.  Scoville  wants 
him  or  not.  I  want  him  here.  The  only  way  I 
can  make  that  known  to  him  is  to  make  it  public. 


2  CO  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

He  has  written  a  very  fine  letter.  I  have  two 
or  three  other  names  I  shall  mention.  Mr.  Sco- 
ville  is  doing  splendidly,  but  I  want  him  to  have 
help. 

John  Taylor  (colored)  was  next  called  to  the 
witness-stand.  He  was  the  hackman  to  whom 
Guiteau  spoke  about  a  week  before  the  shooting 
in  regard  to  what  he  would  charge  to  drive  him 
to  Benning's  Station,  just  beyond  the  Congres 
sional  Cemetery,  and  he  gave  an  account  of  that 
conversation. 

Another  colored  hack  driver,  Aquilla  Barton, 
was  the  next  witness.  He  was  quite  a  character 
and  elicited  a  good  deal  of  amusement  by  his  tes 
timony.  He  was  at  the  depot  on  the  morning  the 
President  was  shot.  The  prisoner  came  along 
toward  the  hack  stand,  and  he  (witness)  asked 
him  if  he  wanted  a  carriage ;  the  prisoner  said 
that  he  wanted  to  see  a  man  named  Taylor ;  the 
witness  said,  "  Mister,  I  pledge  my  word  and 
honor  that  Taylor  has  not  been  here  this  morning  ; 
let  me  wait  on  you ;"  the  prisoner  said,  "  Hold  on, 
don't  get  excited ;"  the  prisoner  then  went  into 
the  depot,  but  presently  returned  and  asked  wit 
ness  how  much  he  would  charge  to  drive  him  to 
the  cemetery  ;  he  then  engaged  the  carriage,  tell 
ing  witness  that  when  he  jumped  into  the  car 
riage  he  wanted  to  be  driven  very  rapidly ;  he' 
said  that  he  merely  wanted  to  look  around  the 
burying  ground  ;  witness  took  particular  notice  of 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  2QI 

the  man  when  he  re-entered  the  depot  and  knew 
him  from  the  crown  of  his  head  to  the  sole  of  his 
foot ;  in  about  ten  minutes  witness  heard  two  pis 
tol  shots  and  ran  into  the  depot  to  see  what  was 
the  matter ;  he  did  not  think  of  the  man  who  had 
engaged  him,  but  after  he  had  heard  that  the 
President  was  shot  he  returned  to  his  carriage ; 
just  then  the  prisoner  was  brought  out  and 
he  (the  witness)  said,  "Oh  God!  That  is  the 
man  who  wanted  me  to  take  him  to  the  grave 
yard." 

On  cross-examination  as  to  the  prisoner's  ap 
pearance  at  the  time  of  the  shooting,  the  answer 
was  given  that  the  prisoner  was  not  excited. 

A.  Were  you  excited  ?  A.  Not  at  all ;  I  was 
not,  but  I  was  bucjting  very  strong  for  the  job ;  he 
was  a  good  deal  in  his  senses;  he  was  "flesher" 
than  he  is  now.  [Laughter.] 

Prisoner,  in  a  humorous  manner :  I  may 
state  here  that  I  had  the  first  square  meal  to-day  I 
have  had  since  the  2d  of  July.  [Laughter.] 

Byron  Andrews  was  then  called  to  the  stand 
simply  to  identify  himself  as  the  correspondent  of 
the  Chicago  Inter- Ocean  and  the  New.  York 
Graphic.  He  had  received  no  papers  from  the 
prisoner,  and  did  not  know  him. 

At  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  Mr.  Scoville 
rose  and  said : 

I  give  notice  now  that  the  defense  in  this  case 
is  insanity,  and  we  will  claim  that  the  burden  of 


2Q2  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

proof  is  on  the  prosecution.  If  they  intend  to 
introduce  evidence  on  that  point  they  must  intro 
duce  it  before  they  close. 

Mr.  Davidge  :  We  think  otherwise,  and  we  will 
act  according  to  our  convictions  of  what  is  proper. 
The  defense  has  made  no  opening. 

Mr.  Scoville :  I  give  you  notice  now,  before 
you  close  your  proofs  ;  I  simply  want  to  make  it  a 
matter  of  record. 

Judge  Cox :  I  understand. 

Mr.  Sevelion  A.  Brown,  Chief  Clerk  of  the 
State  Department,  was  the  next  witness.  He 
testified  as  to  the  frequent  visits  of  the  prisoner 
to  the  Department,  and  to  the  witness  giving 
orders  not  to  send  any  more  of  his  cards  to  the 
Secretary,  or  let  him  see  the  Secretary. 

On  cross-examination  he  said  he  was  quite  sure 
the  place  for  which  Guiteau  applied  was  beyond 
his  reach.  The  prisoner  did  not  look  to  be  that 
kind  of  man  who  would  be  appointed  to  such  a 
position.  He  had  excluded  his  cards  from  the 
Secretary  because  it  was  hardly  worth  while  to 
take  up  the  Secretary's  time ;  the  Secretary  had 
not  ordered  the  exclusion  of  Guiteau's  cards,  nor 
did  Guiteau  know  that  they  were  excluded.  Wit 
ness  had  also  refused  to  permit  the  prisoner  to 
make  use  of  the  library  of  the  Department;  he 
did  not  want  to  give  him  any  excuse  for  being 
there ;  he  wanted  to  rid  the  Department  of  him. 
He  did  not  notice  anything  peculiar  about  him, 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  203 

except  that  he  was  a  nervous  individual  and  that 
he  seemed  to  have  a  reluctance  to  look  one  in  the 
eye. 

Guiteau  :  I  looked  in  your  eye,  Mr.  Brown. 

Adolphus  Eckloff,  a  police  lieutenant,  was  called 
by  the  prosecution  to  identify  the  revolver. 

In  the  cross-examination  he  detailed  the  man 
ner  of  searching  the  prisoner  when  he  reached 
the  Police  Headquarters;  on  taking  the  man  to 
the  jail  he  had  appeared  frightened,  but  there 
was  nothing  peculiarly  wild  about  his  face;  in  con 
versation  with  Detective  McElfresh  the  man  had 
stated  that  he  was  "a  stalwart  of  the  stalwarts," 
and  that  he  shot  the  President  to  save  the  Repub 
lican  party  and  the  country. 

Mr.  J.  Stanley  Brown,  private  secretary  to  the 
late  President,  was  the  next  witness.  He  testified 
to  Guiteau's  frequent  calls  at  the  White  House 
and  of  his  (witness')  finally,  about  the  1 5th  of  May, 
telling  the  ushers  that  Guiteau  must  no  longer 
trouble  the  office ;  he  had  told  Guiteau  himself 
and  had  reiterated  it  twice,  that  his  application, 
being  in  the  consular  service,  must  go  to  the  State 
Department ;  witness  identified  a  large  number  of 
letters  from  Guiteau  to  the  President,  which  the 
District- Attorney  proceeded  to  read,  as  follows : — 

[Private.]  March  8,  1881. 

GENERAL  GARFIELD — I  called  to  see  you  this  a.  m.,  but 
you  were  engaged.  In  October  and  January  last  I  sent  you 
a  note  from  New  York  touching  the  Austrian  Mission.  Mr. 


2OA.  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

Kasson  of  Iowa,  I  understand,  wishes  to  remain,  at  Vienna 
till  fall.  He  is  a  good  fellow,  I  should  not  wish  to  disturb 
him  in  any  event.  What  do  you  think  of  me  for  Consul 
General  for  Paris?  I  think  I  prefer  Paris  to  Vienna,  and 
if  agreeable  to  you,  should  be  satisfied  with  the  Consulship  at 
Paris.  The  enclosed  speach  was  sent  to  our  leading  orators 
and  editors  in  August.  Soon  thereafter  they  opened  on  the 
Rebel  war  claim  idea,  and  it  was  this  idea  that  resulted  in 
your  election. 

Mr.  Walker,  of  New  York,  the  present  Consul  at  Paris  was 
appointed  through  Mr.  Evarts,  and  I  presume  he  has  no  expecta 
tion  of  being  retained.  Senators  Elaine,  Logan  and  Conk- 
ling  are  friendly  to  me,  and  I  presume  my  appointment  will 
be  promptly  confirmed.  There  is  nothing  against  me.  I 
claim  to  be  a  gentleman  and  a  Christian.  C.  G. 

[Private.] 

GENERAL  GARFIELD — I  understand  from  Colonel  "Hooker, 
of  the  National  Committee,  that  I  am  to  have  a  Consulship. 
I  hope  it  is  the  Consulship  to  Paris,  as  that  is  the  only  one  I 
care  to  take,  now  that  Mr.  Phelps  has  the  Austrian  Mission, 
I  think  I  have  a  right  to  press  my  claim  for  the  Consulship  at 
Paris.  I  think  General  Logan  and  Secretary  Elaine  are  favor 
able  to  this,  and  I  wish  you  would  send  in  my  name  for  the 
Consulship  at  Paris.  Mr.  Walker,  the  present  Consul,  I  do 
not  think  has  any  claim  on  you  for  the  office,  as  the  men 
that  did  the  business  last  fall  are  the  ones  to  be  remembered. 
Senator  Logan  has  my  papers  ?and  he  said  he  would  see  you 
about  this.  Very  respectfully, 

March  26.  CHARLES  GUITEAU. 

[Private.] 

GENERAL  GARFIELD — From  your  looks  yesterday  I  judge 
you  did  not  quite  understand  what  I  meant  by  saying  "I  have 
not  called  for  two  or  three  weeks."  I  intended  to  express 
my  sympathy  for  you  on  account  of  the  pressure  that  has  been 
on  you  since  you  came  into  office.  I  think  Mr.  Elaine  intends 


ASSASSfN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  205 

giving  me  the  Paris  Consulship,  with* your  and  General 
Logan's  approbation,  and  I  am  waiting  for  the  break  in  the 
Senate.  I  have  practised  law  in  New  York  and  Chicago,  and 
presume  I  am  well  qualified  for  it.  I  have  been  here  since 
March  5,  and  expect  to  remain  some  little  time,  or  until  I 
get  my  commission.  Very  respectfully, 

April  6.  CHAS.  GUITEAU. 

[Private.] 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  :  I  wish  to  say  this  about  Mr.  Robert, 
son's  nomination.  Would  it  not  be  well  to  withdraw  it  on 
the  ground  that  Mr.  Conkling  has  worked  himself  to  a  white 
heat  of  opposition  ?  It  might  be  done  quietly  and  gracefully, 
on  the  ground  that  since  the  nomination  many  merchants 
and  others  in  New  York  had  petitioned  for  the  retention  of 
General  Merritt.  It  strikes  me  that  it  would  be  true  policy 
to  do  this,  as  Mr.  Conkling  is  so  determined  to  defeat  Mr. 
Robertson,  and  the  chances  are  he  may  do  it.  It  is  doing 
great  harm  all  around.  I  am  very  sorry  you  have  got  Conk 
ling  down  on  you.  Had  it  not  been  for  General  Grant  and 
Senator  Conkling  we  should  have  lost  New  York.  The  loss 
of  New  York  would  have  elected  Hancock.  Mr.  Conkling 
feels  you  ought  to  have  consulted  him  about  the  appointments 
in  his  own  State,  and  that  is  the  reason  he  is  so  set  against 
Mr.  Robertson  ;  and 'many  people  think  he  is  right.  It  seems 
to  me  that  the  only  way  to  get  out  of  this  difficulty  is  to  with 
draw  Mr.  Robertson,  on  the  ground  that  since  his  nomination 
the  leading  merchants  of  New  York  have  expressed  them 
selves  as  well  satisfied  with  General  Merritt,  who  certainly  is 
not  a  "  Conkling  man."  I  am  on  friendly  terms  with  Sena 
tor  Conkling  and  the  rest  of  our  Senators,  but  I  write  this  on 
my  own  account  and  in  the  spirit  of  a  peacemaker. 

I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  making  this  suggestion  to  Mr. 
Blaine.  and  wish  you  and  he  would  give  it  due  attention. 

Very  respectfully, 

CHARLES  GUITEAU. 

April  2<}th. 


206  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

[Private.] 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  :  I  am  sorry  you  and  Senator  Conk- 
ling  are  apart,  but  I  stand  by  you  on  the  ground  that  his 
friends  Morton,  James,  Pearson  and  the  rest  of  them  have 
been  well  provided  for,  and  Mr.  Conkling  ought  to  have  been 
satisfied.  Very  respectfully, 

May  jth*  CHARLES  GUITEAU. 

[Private.] 

To  GENERAL  GARFIELD  :  I  have  got  a  new  idea  about  '84. 
If  you  work  your  position  for  all  it's  worth  you  can  be  nomi 
nated  and  elected  in  '84.  Your  opponents  will  probably  be 
General  Grant  and  Mr.  Elaine.  General  Grant  will  never  be 
so  strong  again  as  he  was  just  after  his  trip  around  the  world. 
Too  many  people  are  dead  set  against  a  third  term,  and  I  don't 
think  he  can  be  nominated  much  less  elected  again.  Two 
national  conventions  have  slaughtered  Mr.  Elaine  on  account 
of  his 

At  this  point  the  District-Attorney  had  some 
difficulty  in  deciphering  the  writing,  but  was 
helped  out  of  his  difficulty  by  the  prisoner,  who 
finished  the  sentence  for  him  "  of  his  railroad 
record  and  connections,"  The  remainder  of  the 
letter  was  as  follows  : 

The  Republican  party  are  afraid  to  run  him.  This  leaves 
the  way  open  for  you.  Run  the  Presidency  on  your  own 
account.  Strike  out  right  and  left.  The  American  people 
like  pluck,  and  in  '84  we  will  put  you  in  again. 

White  House,  May  10.  C.  G. 

P.  S. — I     will      see    you     about     the     Paris   Consulship 
to-morrow,  unless  you  happen  to  send  in  my  name  to-day. 
[Private.] 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  :  Until  Saturday  I  supposed  Mr. 
Elaine  was  my  friend  in  the  matter  of  the  Paris  Consulship, 
but  from  his  tone  Saturday  I  judge  he  is  trying  to  run  the 
State  Department  in  the  interest  of  the  Elaine  element  in  '84. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  2OJ 

You  are  under  small  obligations  to  Mr.  Elaine.  He  almost 
defeated  your  election  by  the  loss  of  Maine.  Had  it  not 
been  for  Hancock's  blunder  on  the  tariff,  and  the  decided 
efforts  of  the  stalwarts,  you  certainly  would  have  been 
defeated  after  the  loss  of  Maine.  You  recalled  Mr.  Noyes 
for  Mr.  Morton,  and  I  wish  you  would  recall  Mr.  Walker  for 
me.  I  am  in  with  Mr.  Morton  and  General  Arthur,  and  I  will 
get  them  to  go  on  my  bond.  General  Logan  and  Senator 
Harrison  and  the  rest  of  my  friends  will  see  that  it  is 
promptly  confirmed.  "  Never  speak  to  me  again,"  said  Mr. 
Elaine,  Saturday,  "on  the  Paris  Consulship  as  long  as  you 
live."  Heretofore  he  has  been  my  friend,  but  now  his  eye  is 
on  a  "Elaine  man"  for  the  position  that  will  help  him  in  '84. 
Two  National  Conventions  have  slaughtered  Mr.  Elaine,  and 
he  ought  to  see  that  there  is  no  chance  for  him  in  '84.  I 
want  to  get  in  my  work  for  you  in  '84. 

I  am  sorry  Mrs.  Garfield  is  sick,  and  hope  she  will  recover 
soon. 

May  16.  CHARLES  GUITEAU. 

[Private.] 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  :  I  hope  Mrs.  Garfield  is  better. 
Monday  I  sent  you  a  note  about  the  Paris  Consulship; 
Tuesday,  one  about '  84.  The  idea  about '  84  flashed  through  me 
like  an  inspiration,  and  I  believe  it  will  come  true.  Your 
nomination  was  a  providence, -and  your  election  a  still  greater 
providence.  Had  Hancock  kept  his  mouth  shut  on  the  tariff 
he  would  have  been  elected,  probably,  notwithstanding 
Grant  and  Conkling  and  the  treachery  of  Kelly.  Business 
men  were  afraid  to  trust  a  man  in  the  White  House  who  did 
not  know  "A"  about  the  tariff,  and  this  killed  Hancock. 
You  are  fairly  elected  and  now  make  the  best  of  it.  With 
two  terms  in  the  White  House  and  a  trip  around  the  globe 
you  can  go  into  history  by  the  side  of  General  Grant.  May 
I  tell  Mr.  Elaine  to  prepare  the  order  for  my  appointment  to 
the  Paris  Consulship,  vice  George  Walker  recalled  ? 

White  House,  May  ij,  1881.  C.  G. 


2O8  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

Another  letter  was  read,  in  which  Guiteau 
refers  to  Secretary  Elaine  as  a  wrecked  man,  and 
which  was  read  by  the  District-Attorney  in  his 
opening  address  yesterday. 

District- Attorney,  to  the  witness :  These  are 
all  the  letters  from  the  prisoner  that  you  found  on 
the  files  of  the  executive  office  ? 

Witness  :   Yes. 

Prisoner :  They  are  all  that  I  ever  wrote. 

District-Attorney :  I  propose  to  identify  by 
this  witness  the  letters  left  by  the  prisoner  at 
the  cigar-stand  in  the  depot. 

Prisoner:  Those  letters  are  all  correct,  every 
one  of  them. 

The  papers  were  shown  to  the  witness,  and 
were  identified  as  in  Guiteau's  handwriting. 

The  next  witness  was  James  L.  Denny,  who  has 
charge  of  the  news-stand  at  the  railroad  depot. 
He  identified  the  package  addressed  to  Byron 
Andrews  and  co-journalists  and  left  with  him  by 
the  prisoner  at  the  news-stand  just  before  the 
shooting. 

The  District-Attorney  proceeded  to  read  the 
letters  and  scraps  of  various  kinds  contained  in 
the  package,  all  of  which  have  been  given  already. 
He  put  them  all  in  evidence,  together  with  the 
book  written  by  Guiteau,  with  the  annotations  its 
author  has  added  to  it. 

The  Court  then,  at  about  3  o'clock,  adjourned.1. 

On  Saturday,  November  iQth,  the  first  witness 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU,  209 

examined  was  George  C.  Maynard,  who  had  been 
somewhat  acquainted  with  Guiteau  for  some 
twenty  years.  On  March  i2th,  the  prisoner  bor 
rowed  $10  of  the  witness,  and  on  June  8th,  bor 
rowed  $15  additional.  It  was  from  this  latter  sum 
that  the  pistol  was  purchased,  with  which  the 
President  was  shot.  On  cross-examination,  the 
following  colloquy  took  place.  Mr.  Scoville 
asked : 

Q.  What  was  the  last  time  you  saw  the  prisoner 
before  he  borrowed  that  $10?  A.  I  do  not  know. 

Q.  You  had  not  seen  him  recently  before  that  ? 
A.  Once  in  the  Riggs  House  reading-room,  and  I 
have  had  the  impression  since  I  made  this  unfortu 
nate  investment  that  it  was  about  the  time  of  the 
November  election. 

Guiteau,  politely:  I  was  in  New  York  at  that 
time.  I  came  here  in  March. 

Mr.  Scoville :  Did  you  notice  anything  pecu 
liar  about  him  ?  A.  I  did  not  notice  anything 
peculiar — anything  different  from  the  man  as  I 
knew  him  before. 

Q.  Was  there  anything  peculiar  then  ?  A.  He 
had  a  peculiar  manner,  a  peculiar  attitude,  a  pecu 
liar  walk,  what  I  should  call  a  skulking  manner. 

Q.  Describe  his  appearance  on  the  8th  of  June. 
A.  He  looked  rather  thin,  and  what  I  should  call 
haggard. 

Guiteau :  That  was  from  mental  anxiety,  not 
from  lack  of  food. 


2io  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GU2TEAU, 

Joseph  M.  Burkhart,  clerk  to  the  last  witness, 
testified  to  handing  $15  to  the  prisoner  on  June 
8th  and  receiving  a  note  from  him.  On  cross- 
examination  he  described  the  appearance  of  the 
prisoner  at  that  time.  The  only  thing  peculiar 
about  him  was  that  he  walked  so  quietly  that  his 
steps  could  hardly  be  heard ;  that  he  held  his  head 
bent  forward  and  had  very  little  to  say. 

The  next  witness  was  John  O'Meara,  keeper  of 
a  gun  and  cutlery  store  at  the  corner  of  Fifteenth 
and  F  streets.  He  testified  that  Guiteau  came 
into  his  store  about  the  sixth  of  June,  looked  at 
the  show-case,  pointed  at  the  largest  calibre  re 
volver  and  asked  to  look  at  it.  He  examined  it 
carefully,  inquired  as  to  its  accuracy,  made  some 
common-place  remarks,  and  then  left,  saying  that 
he  would  call  again  in  a  few  days.  A  few  days 
afterward  the  prisoner  called  again,  examined  the 
pistol,  inquired  as  to  where  he  could  test  its  accu 
racy,  and  was  told  that  the  river-edge  would  be  a 
good  place.  He  also  inquired  as  to  the  force  of 
the  pistol,  and  the  witness  told  him  it  was  a  very 
strong-shooting  pistol.  The  prisoner  paid  $10  for 
the  pistol,  a  box  of  cartridges,  and  a  lady's  pen-knife. 
The  pistol  was  handed  to  witness  for  identifi 
cation,  and  he  was  directed  (to  guard  against  an 
accident  in  the  handling  of  the  pistol)  to  draw  the 
three  remaining  cartridges.  While  the  witness  was 
engaged  in  doing  so,  the  prisoner  said  that  he  might 
as  well  take  advantage  of  that  opportunity  to  re- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  2  I  I 

quest  John  D.  Townsend,  an  eminent  lawyer  of 
New  York,  Leonard  Swett,  a  distinguished  crim 
inal  lawyer  of  Chicago,  and  Mr.  Trude,  of  Chicago, 
to  appear  for  him  next  Monday,  if  the  Court  had 
no  objection. 

Judge  Cox :   I  am  certainly  willing. 

Prisoner:  I  have  heard  that  Mr.  Townsend 
is  willing  to  assist.  If  it  is  possible  for  Mr. 
Swett  to  leave  his  business,  he  will  assist.  We 
have  been  expecting  to  hear  from  Mr.  Trude  for 
the  last  two.  weeks.  I  expect  them  all  here  on 
Monday  morning  with  Judge  Magruder,  of  Mary 
land.  There  is  plenty  of  brains  on  the  other  side, 
and  I  desire  to  have  an  equal  amount  on  this 
side,  in  the  interest  of  justice.  After  a  moment's 
pause,  the  prisoner  again  broke  out.  There  is 
another  matter,  he  said,  in  this  connection.  I  un 
derstand  that  there  are  one  or  two  disreputable 
persons  hanging  around  this  court-room  intending 
to  do  me  harm.  The  Chief  of  Police  has  very 
kindly  furnished  me  with  an  escort,  and  I  have  a 
body-guard  now.  I  want  to  notify  all  disreputable 
persons  that  if  they  attempt  to  injure  me  they  will 
probably  be  shot  dead  by  my  body-guard.  [Laugh 
ter.]  I  have  no  fears  as  to  my  personal  safety. 
There  has  been  considerable  loose  talk  on  this 
subject  for  a  week,  and  I  wish  to  let  the  public  un 
derstand  it. 

The  District- Attorney,  to  Mr.  Scoville  :  Is  your 
client  through  ? 


212  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

There  was  an  affirmative  nod  from  Mr.  Scoville 
and  then  the  testimony  of  the  witness  was  con 
cluded,  with  the  statement  that  the  pistol  was 
known  as  a  British  bull-dog. 

Col.  A.  L.  Rockwell  was  the  next  witness.  He 
proceeded  to  detail  what  he  observed  at  the  time 
of  the  shooting. 

The  testimony  of  the  witness 
was  resumed.  He  was  pres 
ent  at  Mr.  Garfield's  death, 
and  stated  the  time  and  place 
thereof. 

General  D.  G.  Swaim  testi 
fied  that  he  was  the  last  per 
son    to    whom    Mr.   Garfield 
spoke,   his   last  words    being 
"  Oh,  Swaim  !"   There  was  no 
DR.  D.  w.  BLISS.        cross-examination  of  either  of 
these  last  three  witnesses. 

Dr.  D.  W.  Bliss  was  the  next  witness.  He 
pointed  out  on  a  portion  of  a  human  skeleton  the 
course  which  the  ball  had  taken  and  the  manner 
in  which  death  had  been  produced.  The  wound 
made  by  the  ball  was  the  immediate  occasion  of 
death. 

The  cross-examination  was  opened  by  Mr.  Rob 
inson,  with  the  following  comprehensive  direction  : 
State  concisely,  but  accurately,  what  was  observed 
on  each  date,  from  the  time  of  the  shooting  until 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 


213 


the  time  of  the  death.  Describe  all  the  symptoms 
observed  each   day,  and  also 
what  was  done.     Begin  with 
the  first  day. 

The  witness  proceeded   to 
make  the  statement  called  for. 
He   was    interrupted    by  in 
quiries  as  to  the  medical  con 
sultations    held    prior  to    the 
arrival,  on  the  4th  of  July,  of 
Drs.    Agnew   and    Hamilton. 
Then  the  witness  was  askecl    DR-  D-  HAYES  AGNEW- 
to   describe    again,    minutely,   the    course   of  the 
ball.    In   doing  so  he  made   use  of  a  section    of 
the  late  President's  backbone,  showing  the  hole 
made  by  the  bullet. 

Mr.  Robinson  next  inquired  as  to  the  position 
of  the  abscess,  the  incision  into 
the  pus-sac,  the   incision  into 
the  pus-track,  the  muscles  or 
organs  through  which  the  ball 

o  o 

passed,  the  inclination  at  which 
the  ball  struck  the  spinal  col 
umn,  its  force,  the  fragments 
of  bone  that  were  found  dur 
ing  life  and  at  the  autopsy, 
and  the  condition  of  the  wound 
as  discovered  at  the  autopsy. 

Mr.  Robinson  next  went  back  to  the  consulta- 


DR.    F.    H.    HAMILTON. 


214  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

tions  that  were  held  up  to  the  arrival  of  Drs. 
Ao-new  and  Hamilton.  He  wanted  to  know 

o 

exactly  what  was  said  by  the  physicians,  Witness 
said  that  he  could  not  give  that  information,  but  he 
could  state  the  conclusions.  Mr.  Robinson  called 
for  them,  and  the  witness  proceeded  promptly 
to  state  them. 

Mr.  Scoville  then  took  up  the  cross-examination, 
and  inquired  minutely  as  to  the  formation,  growth, 
and  final  rupture  of  the  sac  formed  on  the  artery 
which  had  been  cut  by  the  ball.  He  also  inquired 
as  to  who  had  authorized  the  witness  to  take 
charge  of  the  case.  Mr.  Davidge  suggested  that 
that  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter,  but  the 
witness  answered  by  saying  that  the  request  had 
been  made  to  him  on  the  3d  of  July  by  the 
President,  no  one  else  being  present  but  Mrs. 
Garfield  and  the  witness.  Mr.  Scoville  also 
inquired  minutely  about  the  probing  of  the  wound, 
about  the  supposed  internal  hemorrhage  the  first 
day,  about  the  pus-cavity  and  the  openings  made 
to  it,  and  about  the  quantity  of  morphine  adminis 
tered. 

After  the  recess,  the  cross-examination  of  Dr. 
Bliss  was  resumed  by  Mr.  Scoville.  It  ran  upon 
the  probing  and  washing  of  the  wound,  and  the 
possibility  of  its  having  been  thoroughly  probed 
if  the  real  track  of  the  ball  had  been  known  from 
the  first.  To  the  question  on  that  point  the 
witness  gave  a  negative  reply.  He  was  also 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  2  j  r 

asked  by  what  authority  most  of  the  doctors  who 
had  been  originally  in  attendance  were  discharged, 
and  he  said  that  it  was  by  authority  of  the 
President,  given  in  the  presence  of  Mrs.  Garfield 
and  the  witness. 

Then  Mr.  Robinson  again  took  up  the  cross- 
examination,  and  asked  the  witness  to  reply  in 
detail  to  the  question  as  to  the  symptoms  observed 
during  the  first  four  davs.  In 
order  to  do  that  it  was  neces 
sary  for  him  to  refer  to  the 
data  kept  by  Dr.  Reyburn, 
and  as  there  was  some  diffi 
culty  in  reading  the  manu 
script,  Dr.  Reyburn  was  sworn 
and  stood  beside  him  to  aid 
him  in  the  task. 

Mr.  Davidge  said  he  ob-  - 
jected  with  great  reluctance  DR-  ROBT- 
to  the  introduction  of  any  evidence  that,  in  the 
judgment  of  the  counsel  representing  the  de 
fense,  benefited  in  any  degree  the  case  of  the 
prisoner;  but  it  appeared  to  him  that  the  reading 
of  this  record  was  not  only  not  pertinent  to  the 
issue,  but  had  no  pertinence  whatever  to  the  ex- 
amination-in-chief,  which  had  been  studiously  con 
fined  to  the  character  of  the  wound.  *  *  *  In 
order  to  save  time,  he  suggested  that  the  doctor's 
record  could  be  handed  to  the  counsel  for  the  de 
fense  and  by  them  examined.  This  suggestion 


21  6  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

was  acceded  to  by  Mr.  Robinson,  who  thereupon 
proceeded  with  the  cross-examination  of  the  wit 
ness.  His  questions  were  written  upon  two  or 
three  sheets  of  foolscap,  and  bore  indications  of 
having  been  drawn  up  by  a  medical  expert.  They 
related  to  the  condition  in  which  the  organs  of  the 
President  were  found  at  the  time  of  the  autopsy. 
The  answers  were  given  in  a  clear  and  straight 
forward  manner,  and  when  Mr.  Robinson  had 
concluded,  Mr.  Davidge  subjected  the  witness  to 
a  short  re-direct  examination,  as  follows : 

Q.  What  elements  of  danger  are  there  attend 
ant  on  a  wound  such  as  you  have  described  the 
President's  to  have  been  ?  A.  The  injury  to  the 
body  of  the  backbone  and  the  vertebrae  in  gun 
shot  wounds  is  liable  to  produce  blood-poison, 
and  more  especially  so  because  the  vessels  that 
are  running  through  it  are  surrounded  by  firm 
walls.  The  vessels,  when  torn,  still  remain  open, 
and  will  take  up  the  products  of  the  pus  that  has 
formed,  which  is  poisonous  and  produces  septi 
caemia.  The  laceration  of  the  splenic  artery  I 
should  consider  a  vital  injury ;  that  sooner  or  later 
the  aneurism  would  give  way,  and  death  would 
ensue.  The  carrying  of  the  debris,  or  the  broken 
particles  of  bone  through  the  spine — each  one  a 
point  of  suppurative  inflammation — would  be  liable 
to  produce  blood-poisoning.  These  are  three  ele 
ments  of  danger,  in  my  judgment,  in  an  injury  of 
that  character. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIFLD.  2  j  y 

Q.  What  was  the  character  of  the  wound  ?  was 
it  a  mortal  wound  ?  A.  Yes,  it  was  mortal. 

This  concluded  Dr.  Bliss's  examination,  and  the 
Court,  at  2.15,  adjourned  until  Monday. 

While  returning  to  prison  after  this  day's  pro 
ceedings,  Guiteau  was  shot  at  by  an  unknown 
horseman. 

On  Monday,  November  2ist,  there  was  a  great 
rush  for  places  in  the  court-room.  Guiteau's  nar 
row  escape  on  Saturday  excited  public  interest 
and  hundreds  desired  to  see  him.  He  seemed  to 
realize  that  he  was  the  central  object  of  attraction 
and  his  demeanor  was  careless,  and  at  times  de 
fiant.  Immediately  after  Court  opened  Mr.  Rob 
inson  arose  and  addressed  Judge  Cox,  asking  per 
mission  to  withdraw  from  the  case. 

As  soon  as  Mr.  Robinson  had  finished,  Guiteau, 
without  rising  from  his  chair,  said :  I  want  Robin 
son  to  stay  in  the  case.  He  has  made  a  sensible 
speech,  and  I  agree  with  him  in  the  most  of  it. 
Had  he  made  it  last  Monday  there  would  not  have 
been  any  difficulty  between  us. 

Mr.  Scoville  then  made  a  short  address,  in 
which  he  said  that  Mr.  Robinson  had  not  even 
told  him  the  name  of  the  counsel  he  desired,  nor 
the  fact  that  he  intended  to  withdraw,  and  added 
that  he  did  not  regard  this  as  professional.  When 

Judge  Cox,  after  hearing  Mr.  Scoville,  said : 

The  thanks  of  the  Court  are  due  to  Mr.  Robin 
son  for  the  promptness  with  which  he  responded 
to  the  request  of  the  Court,  and  participated  in 


2  I  8  ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 

this  defense  at  a  great  professional  sacrifice,  as 
I  know,  and  nobody  questions  his  professional 
ability  and  the  sentiments  which  governed  him 
throughout.  I  perceived  from  the  start  that  he 
was  placed  in  a  position  of  unpleasantness,  and  I 
have  felt  recently  that  I  ought,  if  he  desired  it,  to  re 
lieve  him  from  connection  with  the  case,  especially 
as  I  perceived  that  Mr.  Scoville  was  thoroughly 
master  of  the  case.  I  feel  constrained  to  grant 
Mr.  Robinson's  application,  and  to  grant  him  a 
most  honorable  discharge. 

The  medical  testimony  was 
now  resumed.    Surgeon-Gene 
ral  Barnes,  Surgeon  J.  J.  Wood 
ward  and  Assistant  Surgeon  D. 
S.  Lamb,  of  the  United  States 
Army,  gave  their  testimony  for 
the  government  regarding  the 
effect  of  Guiteau's  shot.     Dr. 
Barnes  said :  "  The  wound  was 
a  mortal  wound  and  was  the 
occasion  of  death."    Dr.  Wood-       DR-  J-  K-  BARNES- 
ward  testified  that  "  It  was  a  mortal  wound  and 
the  cause  of  the  President's  death."     Dr.  Daniel 
S.  Lamb,  the  surgeon  who  made  the  autopsy,  said 
the  cause  of  death  was  a  shot  wound. 

Dr.  Lamb,  by  request  of  Mr.  Corkhill,  produced 
the  bullet  which  Guiteau  fired  into  the  President. 
He  opened  a  large  envelope,  sealed  with  red  wax, 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  2  j  g 

which  contained  the   following  paper,  the   bullet 
secured  to  it  by  a  wire : 

I  hereby  certify  that  the  within 
pistol  ball  was,  in  the  presence  of 
Surgeon-General  J.  K.  Barnes,  Sur 
geon  J.  J.  Woodward,  Robert  Rey- 
burn,  Frank  H.  Hamilton,  J.  Hayes 
Agnew,  S.  C.  Boynton,  D.  S.  Lamb 
(who  made  the  autopsy,)  General  D. 
G.  Swaim,  Col.  A.  F.  Rockwell  and 
Mr.  C.  O.  Rockwell,  taken  from  the 
body  of  James  Abram  Garfield,  late 
President  of  the  United  States,  at 
the  post-mortem  examination  held  in  DR.  j.  j.  WOODWARD. 
Francklyn  Cottage,  at  Elberon,  N.  J.,  during  the  afternoon 
of  September  20,  1881. 

D.  W.  BLISS. 

The  bullet  which  is  indented  and  partly  flattened 
on  one  side  and  end,  was  shown  to  and  examined 
by  the  jury.  Guiteau  was  engaged  in  reading 
a  paper,  and  did  not  appear  to  take  any  notice 
of  the  bullet.  At  this  point  the  prosecution 
rested  its  case,  having  called  and  examined  thirty- 
two  witnesses. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   DEFENSE. 

IMMEDIATELY  after  the  prosecution  closed 
its  case,  Mr.  Scoville  suggested  that  the  pris 
oner  should  be  heard  in  his  own    behalf  at 
this  stage   of  the  proceedings.      The    Court   as 
sented  to  this  proposition. 

The  prisoner,  without  leaving  his  seat,  then  said: 
I  was  not  aware  that  I  was  expected  to  speak 
this  morning.  To  Mr.  Scoville,  who  whispered  to 
him  to  stand  up,  he  said :  I  will  not  stand  up.  I 
am  not  afraid  to,  however,  but  I  have  only  got  a 
moment  to  speak.  I  do  not  care  to  say  anything 
more  than  was  published  in  my  address  last  Mon 
day  afternoon  in  the  Evening  Star.  That  paper 
was  addressed  to  your  Honor  and  the  public,  and 
I  presume  that  most  of  the  jurymen  have  heard  it. 
I  have  no  set  speech  to  make.  So  long  as  I  ap 
pear,  in  part,  as  my  own  counsel,  the  best  way  is 
for  me  to  make  corrections  as  the  case  proceeds, 
just  as  I  have  done  during  the  last  three  or  four 
days.  I  mean  no  discourtesy  to  anybody  in  the 
case.  I  only  want  to  get  at  the  facts.  If  some 
body  says  that  I  owe  him  twenty  dollars  and  it  is 
not  true,  I  will  deny  it  on  the  spot  simultaneously 
with  the  false  charge — and  that  as  the  case  pro- 
220 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


221 


ceeds.  Of  course  I  will  go  on  the  stand  at  the 
proper  time  and  be  examined  and  cross-examined. 
My  idea  is,  however,  to  correct  a  misstatement 
while  it  is  hot,  and  at  the  moment  the  statement 
is  made,  and  that  disposes  of  it,  instead  of  waiting 
a  number  of  weeks  till  the  matter  is  digested  and 
misunderstood.  A  great  deal  of  the  bad  feeling 
in  this  matter  has  come  from  enforced  silence,  or 
from  the  suppression  of  my  papers.  I  think  that 
the  true  way  is  to  interject  statements  as  the  case 
proceeds.  I  have  no  set  speech  to  make.  I  am 
much  obliged  to  your  Honor  and  my  counsel  for 
the  courtesy  of  the  invitation. 

Mr.  Scoville  then  proceeded  with  his  address 
to  the  jury  in  a  plain,  easy  matter-of-fact  style, 
and  without  the  slightest  effort  at  oratory  or 
sensationalism.  He  criticised  the  course  of  the 
District- Attorney  in  presenting  the  testimony  so 
much  in  detail.  The  simple  questions  in  the  case 
were  whether  the  prisoner  had  committed  the  act 
(which  was  not  denied),  and  whether  he  was,  at 
the  time,  in  such  condition  of  mind  as  that  be 
should  be  held  responsible  for  the  act.  On  this 
point  there  would  be  a  great  deal  of  expert, 
and  therefore  contradictory,  testimony.  The  jury 
should  note  carefully  the  expert  witnesses,  hear 
their  testimony,  see  how  they  stand  examination 
and  cross-examination,  and  then  come  to  the  best 
conclusions  they  could  arrive  at.  The  difficulty 
would  come  when  the  jury  came  to  weigh  the 


222  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

evidence  on   both    sides.     The  jury  should  then 
consider   that   the  experts    on    the   part    of    the 
government  are  being  paid  $100  to  $200  a  day, 
and  that  even  these  scientific  men  have  not  reached 
that  height  beyond  passion  and  feeling  and  love 
of    money  as   that   those   things   could   have  no 
influence  whatever  on  their  feelings  or  their  judg 
ment.     On   the   other  hand,  not  a  single  expert 
witness  for   the  defense  would  be  paid,  and  their 
testimony,    if    in    favor   of    the    prisoner,   would 
expose  them  to   condemnation  and  ostracism   in 
the  community  where  they  reside.     These   were 
things  to  be  taken  into  consideration  in  weighing 
the     expert    testimony.     The     popular      feeling 
against  the  prisoner  had  been  manifested  in  three 
separate  attacks  upon  his  life — the  last  one  was 
being  commended  by  the  newspapers  all  over  the 
country.     That  popular  feeling  would  also  show 
itself  in  the  testimony  of  the  expert  witnesses. 
He  contrasted  his  own  inexperience  in  criminal 
cases  with  the  experience  and  ability  of  the  coun 
sel  for  the  prosecution,  and  in  viewof  this  disparity  he 
asked  the  jury  to  be  considerate  and  candid  toward 
the  defense.     Still  he  did  not  ask  for  any  odds 
when  it  came  to  questions  of  fact.     He  expected 
that  the  defense  would  erect  an  impregnable  wall 
and  fortress  which  all  the  power  of  the  other  side 
could  not  overthrow.     If  he  came  short  in  his  law, 
he  knew  that  he    could  rely  confidently  on   the 
Court's  learning,  integrity  and  sense  of  justice. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  223 

With  the  array  of  facts  which  he  would  present  to 
an  honest  jury  and  an  upright  judge,  he  felt  that 
he  was  not  entirely  at  a  disadvantage. 

At  this  stage  of  his  address  Mr.  Scoville  asked 
that  the  case  should  go  over  till  to-morrow,  and  it 
was  so  ordered. 

At  the  opening  of  the  morning  session  of  the 
Court  (Tuesday,  November  22d),  Mr.  Scoville 
took  his  stand  in  front  of  the  jury,  and  in  a  delib 
erate  and  conversational  tone  continued  his  ad 
dress.  He  called  the  attention  of  the  jury  to  the 
defense  set  up — insanity.  There  was,  he  knew, 
considerable  antipathy  against  that  defense  in 
criminal  cases  ;  but  he  asserted  that  it  was  put  for 
ward  as  a  just  defense  quite  as  often  as  it  had  availed 
as  an  unjust  defense.  He  expected  the  jury  to  treat 
it  fairly  and  candidly,  and  to  weigh  it  upon  the  evi 
dence.  The  prisoner,  since  he  had  been  in  Court,  had 
done  many  things  which  might  have  influenced  the 
minds  of  the  jurors.  They  might  already  have  come 
to  a  conclusion  as  to  what  sort  of  a  man  the  accused 
was.  It  was  impossible  for  it  to  have  been  otherwise, 
but  it  was  not  exactly  the  proper  thing  to  do.  The 
jurors  should  keep  their  minds  open,  so  that  when 
the  sworn  evidence  was  produced  before  them 
they  could  weigh  it  and  accept  what  was  shown  to 
be  the  fact.  He  proceeded  to  state  the  progress 
of  the  courts  on  this  question  of  insanity,  explain 
ing  the  various  kinds  of  insanity,  and  citing  deci 
sions  on  the  subject. 


224  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

It  was  the  duty  of  the  jury  to  ascertain  the  fact 
whether  the  defendant  was  trying  to  deceive  or 
not,  because  if  not  he  was  entitled  to  the  protec 
tion  of  the  law.  In  the  first  place  it  was  a  very 
difficult  thing  to  feign  insanity  so  as  to  deceive  ex 
perts.  It  would  appear  from  the  evidence  that 
the  defendant  did  not  know  anything  about  in 
sanity  ;  had  never  visited  an  insane  asylum,  and 
had  never  given  the  subject  any  thought  or  atten 
tion.  Yet  it  was  said  that  he  was  simulating,  and 
the  newspapers  and  a  good  many  people  in  the 
community  had  been  as  hasty  in  passing  judg 
ment  on  this  subject  as  on  others.  If  the  news 
papers  were  correct,  the  District- Attorney  himself 
had  repeatedly  said  that  the  prisoner  was  only 
feigning  insanity.  It  was  absolutely  impossible 
for  a  man  who  never  knew  anything  about  it  to 
feign  insanity  so  as  to  deceive  an  expert. 

Mr.  Scoville,  continuing,  said  that,  having  been 
acquainted  with  the  defendant  since  he  was  a  boy, 
the  first  thing  he  had  said  when  he  heard  of  the 
act  was,  "  He  is  crazy,"  just  as  many  others  had 
said — just  as  President  Garfield  had  said, "  What  is 
the  man  doing ;  he  is  crazy ;"  just  as  Secretary 
Elaine  had  said,  "Why  was  this  done?  the  man 
must  be  crazy." 

District- Attorney :  Allow  me  to  say  that  Presi 
dent  Garfield  never  said  such  a  thing,  and  Secre 
tary  Elaine  never  uttered  such  a  sentiment.  He 
said  he  was  sane  all  the  time. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


225 


Mr.  Scoville:  I  only  speak  from  newspaper 
reports. 

District- Attorney :  Secretary  Elaine  has  stated 
on  his  oath  that  he  believed  the  man  was  sane. 

Having  sketched  the  facts  as  to  the  prisoner's 
family  history,  Mr.  Scoville  narrated  the  facts  of 
the  prisoner's  personal  history,  which  need  not  be 
again  detailed.  Finally,  the  District- Attorney  in 
terrupted  the  narrative  saying: 

May  it  please  your  Honor,  Mr.  Scoville  knows 
as  well  as  your  Honor  that  this  testimony,  if  any 
such  exists,  can  never  be  produced  in  this  trial ; 
that  if  there  were  any  such  letters  they  never  can 
reach  the  jury,  and  this  attempt  to  get  into  a  pub 
lic  colloquy  with  this  man  is  reprehensible.  Let 
him  confine  himself  to  the  testimony  which  it  is 
proper  to  introduce  to  the  jury,  and  let  this  man 
play  his  part  when  the  time  comes. 

I  am  not  playing  a  part  (cried  the  prisoner 
excitedly  and  gesticulating  wildly).  I  knew  Sco 
ville  was  lying. 

Mr.  Scoville :  I  understand  that  this  evidence 
is  coming.  I  understand  that  it  is  perfectly  com 
petent. 

As  a  general  thing,  testimony  obtained  from 
lying  is  not  competent,  retorted  the  prisoner. 

Mr.  Scoville:  I  will  not  reply  to  Mr,  Corkhill 
at  present  for  his  insinuation.     When  the  time 
comes  for  the  argument  of  this  case  he  will  get  his 
answer, 
ii 


226  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J,   GUITEAU. 

The  applause  that  greeted  this  declaration  was 
so  impetuous,  so  spontaneous  and  so  unexpected 
that  the  District-Attorney  and  counsel  for  the 
government  looked  amazed,  for  they  seemed  to 
interpret  it  as  the  first  triumph  won  by  the  defense. 
The  District-Attorney  could  hardly  believe  his 
own  ears  as  he  stood  there  in  anything  but  a  pleas 
ing  mood.  His  associate  counsel  could  conceal 
neither  their  vexation  nor  surprise.  Mr.  Davidge 
frowned  ;  Mr.  Smith  looked  a  little  startled  ;  Judge 
Porter,  of  New  York,  grew  more  thoughtful  in 
look.  Every  eye  was  directed  to  the  government 
counsel.  Judge  Cox,  unmoved,  awaited  further 
remarks,  while  the  bailiff  ordered  silence. 

I  had  considered  (continued  Mr.  Scoville), 
that  this  evidence  was  competent. 

Prisoner :  You  will  not  have  any  success 
from  the  Lord  by  lying.  You  lie.  I've  found  you 
out.  When  a  man  lies  to  me  once  I  never  believe 
him  again.  You  have  lied  to  me  once,  and  that  is 
played  out. 

The  prisoner  in  making  this  speech  seemed  to 
be  convulsed  with  passion,  and  it  was  in  vain  that 
his  brother  and  sister  attempted  to  quiet  him. 

Mr.  Scoville:  All  I  want  in  this  case  is  that 
the  truth  shall  prevail. 

Prisoner :  That  is  what  I  want,  and  I  am  going 
to  have  it,  too. 

Mr.  Scoville,  to  the  jury:  All  I  want  is  that 
the  truth  shall  prevail.  If  there  is  any  evidence 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


229 


brought  before  you,  you  have  an  opportunity  to 
criticise  it  any  way  you  please,  and  if  you  believe 
I  produce  an  item  of  evidence  for  theatrical  effect, 
without  an  earnest  conviction  that  it  is  just  and 
proper  to  be  done,  I  want  you  not  only  to  reject  it, 
but  to  charge  it  against  me  with  tenfold  effect  in 
your  final  verdict. 

Mr.  Scoville  then  proposed  to  read  a  bundle  of 
letters  written  by  the  prisoner,  dating  back  to 
1858,  as  showing  the  bent  of  his  mind. 

District-Attorney :  Do  you  propose  to  intro 
duce  these  letters  as  evidence  ? 

Mr.  Scoville :    Yes. 

District- Attorney  :  As  immediately  connected 
with  the  crime  ? 

Mr.  Scoville :  As  showing  the  bent  of  the 
prisoner's  mind,  just  as  you  read  some  of  his  let 
ters  in  the  evidence. 

District- Attorney :  The  letters  I  read  were 
immediately  connected  with  the  commission  of 
the  crime. 

Court:  I  do  not  know  that  I  ean  draw  any 
distinction  as  to  time.  These  letters  are  indica 
tions  of  the  prisoner's  mind. 

Mr.  Scoville  thereupon  proceeded  to  read  the 
letters,  most  of  them  addressed  to  Mrs.  Scoville 
and  some  to  himself.  Those  of  the  earliest  date, 
1858,  show  nothing  peculiar,  but  gradually  they 
drift  into  a  religious  turn,  quoting  texts  of  Scrip 
ture  and  appealing  to  his  sister  to  turn  to  God. 


230 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


This  feature  of  them  is  more  marked  after  he  has 
gone  to  the  Oneida  Community,  the  first  letter 
from  which  is  dated  in  February,  1861.  In  this 
he  lays  down  and  supports  the  doctrines  of  the 
Community.  When  this  letter  was  read  the  pris 
oner  said : 

I  forgot  that  letter.  It  is  a  very  good  repre 
sentation  of  the  influence  under  which  I  lived  for 
six  years.  I  was  not  aware  that  it  was  in  exist 
ence. 

The  last  letter  from  Oneida  was  dated  October 
12,  1866,  and  stated  that  his  views  had  changed; 
that  he  desired  to  leave  the  Community  and  go  to 
New  York  to  qualify  for  a  position  in  some  bank, 
and  asking  Mr.  Scoville  to  send  him  $50. 

Prisoner:  I  was  recovering  from  my  insanity 
then,  got  up  under  their  influence.  I  was  get 
ting  my  eyes  open  then,  away  from  those  mis 
erable  people.  I  had  been  six  years  subject  to 
their  fanaticisms. 

Mr.  Scoville  explained  that  others  of  the  pris 
oner's  letters  had  been  burned  up  in  his  office  in 
the  Chicago  fire.  These  letters  happened  to  have 
been  kept  at  home.  The  next  letters  read  were 
from  New  York  and  Brooklyn  in  1867  and  1868. 
There  were  no  striking  peculiarities  in  any  of 
these  letters,  except  where  they  dealt  with  relig 
ious  subjects. 

At  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  the  case  went 
over  for  the  day. 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU,  2^I 

o 

When  the  Court  opened  on  Wednesday,  No 
vember  23d,  Mr.  Scoville  addressed  the  Judge 
and  made  a  formal  request  for  the  newspaper  ex 
tracts  and  papers  which  were  taken  from  Guiteau 
at  the  time  of  his  arrest,  stating  that  they  were 
material  evidence  for  the  defense,  and,  since  the 
prosecution  did  noUneed  them,  he  could  see  no 
reason  why  they  should  be  withheld  from  him. 
The  District-Attorney  offered  to  furnish  copies  of 
the  papers,  but  Mr.  Scoville  insisted  upon  his 
rights  in  the  matter  and  asked  for  the  originals. 
Pending  discussion,  Guiteau  insisted  upon  being 
heard,  and  said:  I  can  throw  light  upon  this. 
At  the  time  of  my  arrest  I  had  forty  or  fifty  edi- 
tiorial  slips  showing  the  political  situation  in  May 
and  June  last.  These  slips  show  the  action  of 
one  of  the  forces  that  impelled  me  on  to  the 
President.  They  are  very  important,  as  showing 
the  gist  of  the  whole  matter.  There  were  forty 
or  fifty  slips  denouncing  President  Garfield.  It 
was  living  on  such  ideas  as  these  that  I  was  finally 
impelled  to  fire  on  the  President,  with  my  inspira 
tion.  Colonel  Corkhill  interposed,  saying:  "If 
it  will  enable  you  to  get  through  to-day  I  will  send 
for  them  at  once."  Mr.  Scoville  then  continued 
to  read  letters  written  by  Guiteau  years  ago,  to 
show  the  state  of  his  mind  at  that  time  ;  and  then, 
alluding  to  Guiteau's  career  as  a  politician,  drew 
the  conclusion  that  his  intellect  was  deficient. 
This  view  aroused  the  prisoner  at  once,  and  he 


232  ASSASSIN  OF  PREIDENT  GARFIELD.  ' 

began  a  series  of  interruptions,  protesting  against 
Mr.  Scoville's  conclusions  as  false. 

Mr.  Scoville  proceeded  to  tell  how  Guiteau  ran 
from  one  committee-room  to  another  during  the 
Presidential  campaign,  and  said  his  speech,  entitled 
"  Garfield  vs.  Hancock,"  was  but  a  jumble  of  ideas. 
No  one  but  a  crazy  man  would  have  imagined,  as 
Guiteau  did,  that  this  speech  possessed  any  merit. 
Yet  he  thought  it  a  passport  to  the  Austrian 
mission,  and  that  he  had  only  to  present  that 
speech  to  the  President  to  get  any  office. 

Prisoner:  I  did  not  think  anything  of  the 
kind,  and  I  protest  very  solemnly  against  your 
trying  to  make  out  that  I  was  a  fool.  If  you 
want  to  rest  this  case  anywhere  rest  it  on  the  true 
doctrine,  that  the  Deity  did  this  act,  and  I  am  with 
you.  But  if  you  say  I  am  a  fool  I  am  down  upon  you. 

Mr.  Scoville :  Some  of  the  witnesses  will  ex 
press  the  opinion  that  the  prisoner  was  a  fool  and 
others  that  he  was  crazy.  You  (to  the  jury)  are 
to  be  governed  by  the  testimony.  The  prisoner 
will  also  be  sworn  and  you  can  give  to  his  testi 
mony  what  weight  you  please. 

Prisoner :  I  say  that  the  Deity  inspired  the 
act  and  that  he  will  take  care  of  it.  You  need 
not  try  to  make  out  that  I  am  a  fool,  because  you 
cannot  do  that.  I  repudiate  your  theory  on  that 
point. 

Mr.  Scoville :  I  am  stating  what  the  witnesses 
will  swear  to. 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU,  233 

Prisoner :  Let  them  swear  to  it  and  we  will 
meet  them  on  the  stand. 

District- Attorney,  interrupting:  Is  it  necessary? 

Prisoner :  It  is  not  necessary  for  you  to  make 
any  remarks,  Colonel. 

The  District-Attorney  insisted  that  the  priso- 
er's  constant  interruptions  should  be  prevented 
by  the  Court. 

Mr.  Scoville,  to  the  District- Attorney :  I  will 
join  you  in  any  proceeding-  to  keep  him  quiet. 

Prisoner  to  Mr.  Scoville :  You  have  got  to 
speak  the  truth  and  I  will  keep  still. 

District- Attorney :  This  man  knows  very  well 
that  he  should  keep  still. 

Prisoner :  Let  him  (Scoville)  state  the  truth  and 
I  will  keep  still. 

The  Court  to  the  Prisoner :    You  keep  quiet. 

Prisoner:  I  wish  to  make  running  statements 
on  the  proceedings ;  that  will  save  me  from  mak 
ing  a  long  speech. 

The  prisoner  attempted  to  proceed,  but  was 
severely  ordered  by  the  Court  to  be  silent.  "If 
you  will  not,"  continued  the  Court,  "I  will  have  to 
take  the  strongest  measures  to  make  you. " 

Prisoner :  I  shall  keep  quiet.  I  only  want  this 
thing  to  go  out  straight.  I  shall  give  the  entire 
facts  when  I  am  on  the  stand. 

Mr.  Scoville  then  proceeded  with  his  address, 
stating  that  in  the  matter  of  his  application  for 
office  the  prisoner  had  shown  a  total  want  of 


234  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

reasoning  power.  He  was  continually  fed  with 
suggestions  from  newspapers.  There  were  con 
tinual  su^qrestions  that,  but  for  President  Garfield, 

oo 

everything  would  be  harmonious  in  the  Republi 
can  party.  These  newspaper  slips  fed  his  morbid 
feelings,  and  the  result  was  that,  thinking  about 
the  matter  with  nothing  to  divert  his  mind,  with 
his  intense,  unbalanced  religious  convictions,  he 
was  completely  carried  away.  The  evidence  would 
show  that  the  matter  was  always  preying  on  his 
mind  and  it  became  his  fixed  and  firm  idea  that 
his  duty  to  his  country  and  God  required  him  to 
remove  the  President.  He  was  impelled  by  an 
irresistible  impulse  to  do  that  thing.  There  must 
be  blame  somewhere  for  the  great  crime.  If  this 
man  were  insane,  if  he  were  not  responsible  for 
his  act,  he  could  not  be  found  to  blame,  and  the 
question  then  recurred,  where  was  the  blame  ? 
From  the  necessities  of  the  case  certain  elements 
— the  political  situation,  the  discords  in  the  Re 
publican  party — must  be  brought  in.  He  was  not 
going  to  direct  attention  to  any  individual  or  any 
branch -or  faction  of  the  party  and  lay  the  blame 
there,  but  he  was  going  to  say  that  this  continual 
strife  for  office,  this  element  of  politics  that  had 
entered  in  during  the  last  few  years,  had  been 
made  the  question  of  the  day.  This  crime  owed 
its  origin  to  that  element  of  political  contest  and 
the  blame  for  it  must  be  located  on  modern  poli 
tics.  If  the  jury  found  by  their  verdict  that  this 


ASSASSLW  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  2  -  - 

man  was  insane  the  same  verdict  would  say  that 
the  blame  rested  on  the  politicians  of  the  present 
day.  It  coulcl  not  be  otherwise. 

Mr.  Scoville  concluded  his  opening,  and  at  the 
request  of  the  District- Attorney  witnesses  for  the 
defense  were  excluded  from  the  court,  except 
Guiteau  and  Mrs.  Scoville.  The  first  witness 
for  the  defense,  H.  N.  Burton,  was  then  examined. 
He  heard  Guiteau  lecture  at  Kalamazoo,  Mich., 
on  the  subject,  "The  Second  Coming  of  the 
Lord."  Mr.  Scoville  desired  to  prove  by  this 
witness  that  the  audience  on  that  occasion  were 
unanimous  in  declaring  Guiteau  to  be  insane. 
Witness  said:  "I  did  not  think  him  so  deranged 
as  to  be  irresponsible.  I  thought  him  not  de 
ranged,  but  very  badly  arranged." 

Dr.  John  A.  Rice,  of  Minton  Wis.,  was  called. 
He  had  been  a  practicing  physician  for  twenty-six 
years.  He  first  saw  Guiteau  in  1876,  when  he 
was  requested  by  Mrs.  Scoville  to  see  the  prisoner 
for  the  purpose  of  inquiring  into  his  mental  con 
dition.  The  result  of  his  examination  was  that 
he  became  satisfied  that  the  prisoner  was  insane ; 
that  his  insanity  was  of  the  emotions,  rather  than 
of  the  intellect.  There  appeared  to  be  an  im 
pairment  of  the  judgment,  but  not  much,  if  any, 
impairment  of  the  intellect.  He  displayed  what 
might  be  termed  a  moral  imbecility. 

Frank  L.  Union,  of  Boston,  spoke  of  circum 
stances  attending  Guiteau's  lecture  in  Investigator 


236  •    TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

Hall,  in  the  Paine  Memorial  Building,  Boston,  in 
September,  1879.  The  witness  thought  Guiteau 
was  crazy. 

Norwood  Damon,  of  Boston,  was  present  at 
Guiteau's  Boston  lecture,  and  thought  him  an 
insane  man. 

George  W.  Olds,  of  Michigan,  was  employed 
upon  Mr.  Scoville's  farm  at  the  time  of  Guiteau's 
visit  in  1879.  He  detailed  eccentricities  on  the 
part  of  Guiteau  which  led  him  (the  witness)  to 
think  at  the  time  that  he  was  insane. 

At  this  point  the  Court  adjourned  until  Friday 
on  account  of  the  National  Thanksgiving. 

Friday,  November  25th,  was  ushered  in  by  an 
other  statement  from  Guiteau.  He  also  read  a 
paper  without  rising  from  his  seat,  but  stating  that 
he  was  not  afraid  to  rise. 

Some  discussion  between  counsel  concerning 
certain  papers  followed  at  this  point,  after  which 
Guiteau  again  broke  out  saying :  "  I  understand 
that  my  divorced  wife  is  here.  The  fact  is  that  I 
had  no  business  to  marry  that  woman;  we  have 
been  unfortunate.  If  she  comes  into  court  to  do 
me  harm  I  will  rip  up  her  entire  record.'* 

The  next  witness  was  Joseph  E.  Smith,  of  Free- 
port,  Illinois,  seventy-one  years  of  age.  He  had 
known  Luther  W.  Guiteau  (the  prisoner's  father) 
from  1846  to  the  hour  of  his  death ;  he  was  a  per 
fectly  sincere  man,  who  stood  well  in  the  commu 
nity. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.         2^7 

o  / 

Charles  H.  Reed,  a  Chicago  lawyer,  was  the 
next  witness.  He  held  the  position  of  State's 
Attorney  from  1864  to  1876.  He  related  an  inci 
dent,  when  the  prisoner,  having  been  assigned  to 
the  defense  of  a  small  larceny  case,  proceeded  to 
deliver  a  rambling,  wandering  speech,  full  of  vaga 
ries  and  quite  illogical.  He  introduced  all  sorts 
of  subjects  that  were  foreign  to  the  case.  He 
talked  about  theology  and  divinity  and  the  rights 
of  man.  Witness  saw  the  prisoner  at  the  Riggs 
House,  in  Washington,  upon  the  Tuesday  preced 
ing  the  shooting  of  the  President.  He  desired  to 
borrow  from  witness  $15,  promising  to  pay  it  back 
when  he  obtained  the  Paris  Consulship.  He 
stated  that  Mr.  Elaine  was  on  his  side,  and  that  in 
a  few  days  the  papers  would  announce  his  ap 
pointment.  Witness  had  seen  him  several  times 
previous  to  that,  and  on  each  occasion  he  intro 
duced  the  subject  of  the  Paris  Consulship,  and  he 
had  become  quite  excited  when  witness  suggested 
that  he  obtain  some  inferior  office.  Witness 
thought  that  he  was  off  his  balance. 

Mr.  Scoville:  You  had  an  interview  with  him 
in  the  jail  a  few  weeks  ago  ;  what  was  that  ? 

Witness  replied  that  he  had  visited  the  jail  in 
company  with  Mr.  Scoville,  and  that  he  had  found 
the  prisoner  lying  on  his  couch.  Witness  asked 
him  why  he  shot  the  President.  He  rose  up  to  a 
sitting  posture  and  began,  in  a  very  excited  man 
ner,  a  sort  of  speech,  saying :  "  I  did  not  do  it ; 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  Jt   GUITEAU, 

the  Lord  did  it.  He  used  me  as  an  instrument. 
It  was  necessary  for  the  salvation  of  the  country 
to  remove  the  President." 

In  the  cross-examination  Mr.  Davidge  asked 
the  witness  whether,  before  his  visit  to  the  jail,  he 
had  ever  considered  the  prisoner  of  unsound 
mind?  A.  Yes. 

Q.  To  the  degree  of  unsoundness  as  to  render 
him  irresponsible?  A.  For  what? 

O.  For  crime? 

Witness :  That  is  a  difficult  question  for  any 
body  to  answer  in  cases  where  a  person  is  not  a 
raving,  wild  maniac.  I  should  not  like  to  express 
an  opinion. 

The  witness  then  responded  to  questions  pro 
pounded  by  Mr.  Davidge,  again  detailed  the  con 
versation  at  the  Riggs  House,  but  was  interrupted 
by  the  prisoner  with  a  positive  denial.  I  clo  not 
want,  he  said,  to  contradict  Mr.  Reed  because  he 
is  a  good  fellow,  but  there  is  not  a  word  of  truth 
in  it.  I  spoke  to  Mr.  Reed  two  or  three  months 
prior  to  July.  I  never  spoke  to  Mr.  Reed  or  any 
one  else  about  the  Paris  Consulship  for  two  or 
three  months  prior  to  July.  I  want  the  exact 
truth  and  nothing  but  the  truth,  and  I  don't  care 
who  hears  it. 

Mr.  Davidge :  We  can  dispense  with  these 
interruptions. 

Prisoner,  excitedly :  We  want  the  facts,  Judge. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  239 

Mr.  Davidge :  You  have  been  indulged  alto 
gether  too  much. 

And  it  is  right  that  I  should  be,  retorted  the 
prisoner.  I  appear  as  my  own  counsel, 

The  Court,  severely :  Be  silent. 

Mr.  Davidge,  firmly:  You  must  keep  quiet  at 
least  while  I  am  cross-examining  a  witness. 

But  neither  court  nor  counsel  could  repress  the 
prisoner,  who  continued  talking  and  struggling 
angrily  with  the  deputy  marshals.  This  conver 
sation,  he  continued,  occurred  about  two  months 
prior  to  July.  You  are  right  as  to  the  conversa 
tion,  but  wrong  as  to  the  date.  I  say  that  it  was  in 
May.  With  that  correction  your  statement  is  true. 

Mr.  Davidge,  to  the  witness :  You  have  heard 
the  interruption  of  the  prisoner.  What  is  your 
opinion  about  the  time  ? 

Witness :  I  am  very  certain  that  it  was  on  that 
Tuesday. 

Prisoner:  That  was  the  time  I  spoke  to  you 
about  getting  $15.  You  said  you  did  not  have 
the  money.  That  part  of  the  conversation  is  cor 
rect.  I  don't  forget  anything.  Anything  that 
gets  into  my  head  sticks.  [Laughter.] 

Mr.  Davidge,  to  witness :  You  said  that  he 
stated  that  you  would  see  his  name  in  the  papers 
in  connection  with  the  Paris  Consulship. 

Prisoner :  I  never  said  that. 

Mr.  Davidge :  Well,  he  says,  Mr.  Prisoner,  that 
you  did  say  it,  and  he  has  a  right  to  his  opinion. 


240  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

The  prisoner,  in  a  persevering  manner,  declared 
that  he  had  not  said  so.  He  also  indignantly  de 
nied  the  witness'  statement  that  he  (witness)  had 
not  admitted  him  to  the  Bar  in  Chicago.  He  did 
not  want  any  trickery  about  this  case. 

Court,  impatient  at  the  prisoner's  constant  in 
terruptions  of  counsel  and  witness,  in  a  stern  and 
determined  tone,  said :  If  there  is  no  other  way  of 
preventing  these  interruptions  you  will  have  to  be 
gagged. 

Well — ,  commenced  the  prisoner. 

Keep  your  mouth  shut !  thundered  the  Judge, 
and  don't  interrupt  during  this  trial.  I  do  not 
desire  it,  but  if  the  trial  cannot  go  on  without 
resort  to  gagging  it  will  have  to  be  done. 

Even  this  threat,  though  it  had  a  momentary 
effect  upon  the  prisoner,  could  not  entirely  repress 
him,  and  he  again  denied  the  conversation  detailed 
by  the  witness,  who  "  was  a  very  good  fellow,  but 
wrong  there.  I  am  going  to  have  the  facts  in  this 
case,"  he  continued,  "and  nothing  but  the  facts.  I 
want  the  Judge  and  the  jury  to  decide  upon  the 
facts,  and  upon  nothing  else.  The  witness  is  en 
tirely  erroneous  in  his  memory." 

Q.  Did  Guiteau  say  that  you  would  see  his 
name  in  the  newspapers  in  a  few  days  as  consul 
to  Paris,  or  that  he  would  make  a  fuss  ?  A.  He 

said,  "  If  I  do  not  get  it "  (reflecting,  I  will 

find  his  exact  language). 

Prisoner,  interrupting :  It  is  absolutely  false.     I 


ASSASS/tf  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  2  ,  x 

never  said  any  such  thing.  That  has  nothing  at 
all  to  do  with  my  intending  to  remove  the  Presi 
dent. 

Witness  :  He  said,  in  connection  with  the  admin 
istration,  that  if  he  did  not  get  the  Paris  consulate, 
he  would  either  make  a  fuss  about  it  or  would  do 
something  about  it  in  the  newspapers. 

Prisoner :  I  never  said  anything  of  the  kind,  and 
I  never  thought  anything  of  the  kind.  That  is  the 
result  of  your  own  imagination,  Mr.  Reed.  It  is 
not  true. 

H.  B.  Hamerling,  at  present  a  lawyer  in  Wil- 
liamsport,  Pa.,  and  who  formerly  resided  in  Free- 
port,  111.,  was  the  next  witness.  He  had  known 
Luther  W.  Guiteau  intimately;  he  (Guiteau)  be 
lieved  that  in  order  to  be  healed  all  that  was 
necessary  was  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ.  Witness 
related  an  incident  as  to  the  sickness  of  his  wife, 
when  Luther  W.  Guiteau  advised  her  to  turn  out 
the  doctors  and  put  her  faith  in  Jesus  Christ;  he 
also  gave  witness  the  same  advice  upon  another 
occasion  ;  he  believed  that  the  pocket-books  of  all 
persons  should  be  open  to  every  one,  but  that 
nothing  more  should  be  taken  out  than  was 
right. 

The  cross-examination  proceeded  for  consider 
able  time,  with  more  amusement  than  profit. 

The  next  witness  was  Thomas  North,  a  Chicago 
lawyer.  He  formerly  lived  in  Freeport,  Illinois, 
where  he  was  intimately  acquainted  with  Luther 

21 


2^2  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J,   GUITEAU, 

W.  Guiteau,  and  was  Deputy  Clerk  under   him 

when  he  was  Circuit  Clerk  and  ex-officio  Recorder. 

Q.  What  peculiarities  were  there  in  his  religious 

views  as  to  the  union  with  Christ,  perfectionism, 

etc?     A.   He  was  what  is  called  a  perfectionist. 

He  believed  in  perfect  holiness.     He  believed  in 

vital  union  with  Christ  by  faith.     He  believed  in 

inspiration  by  the  Holy  Ghost.    He  believed  that 

inspiration  wrould  be    carried    so   far  as  to  save 

him  from  theological  error  and  to  give  him  power 

over  all  diseases    and   maladies.     He    discarded 

doctors  and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  them. 

He  believed  in  immortality  on  earth,  by  vital  union 

with   Christ.     I    have  heard  'him  say,  perhaps   a 

dozen  times,  that  he  never  expected  to  die.    Once, 

his   daughter  Flora,  six  years  old,  was  sick,  and 

her  mother  had  sent  for  a  doctor.     Guiteau  came 

in  and  told  the  doctor  to  get  out  of  the  house, 

that  he  would  attend  to  his  own  daughter's  case. 

He  then  began  to  manipulate  the  child,  and  to 

command  the  disease  to  disappear,  in  the  name  of 

Christ.     His  manner  was  frenzied. 

On  another  occasion,  when  a  Mrs.  Plummer  was 
ill,  and  when  two  doctors  were  in  the  room  with 
her,  Luther  W.  Guiteau  came  in  and  went  into  a 
violent  display,  both  of  words  and  manner,  so 
much  so  that  he  shocked  all  who  were  present 
into  silence.  He  said  to  the  doctors:  "Get  out  of 
the  room,  and  let  every  one  who  believes  in 
doctors  get  out.  This  woman  can  be  cured,  and  I 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


will  proceed  to  try  and  cure  her."  He  kneeled  by 
her  side,  took  her  hands  in  his,  and  began  to  pray 
to  God  Almighty  to  command  the  disease  to  leave 
the  woman.  He  ordered  her  in  the  name  of  Christ, 
to  rise  up,  to  take  up  her  bed  and  walk.  He 
went  on  in  that  way  for  five  minutes. 

Q.  In  your  opinion  was  he,  on  either  of  those 
occasions,  of  sound  mind?  A.  I  do  not  think  he 
was.  His  whole  manner  was  unnatural. 

At  a  later  stage  of  the  proceedings,  Mr.  Scoville 
asked  the  witness  how  the  prisoner  and  his  father 
compared,  in  regard  to  personal  and  mental  char 
acteristics.  Objected  to  by  the  District-  Attorney. 

The  objection  being  overruled,  witness  stated 
that  the  prisoner  was  an  exaggerated  fac-simile  of 
his  father. 

Prisoner  :  I  am  a  little  larger  than  he  was. 

Witness  :  I  should  say  that  mentally  there  was 
a  very  marked  resemblance. 

Mr.  Scoville  :  What  do  you  mean  by  the  phrase 
"  an  exaggerated  fac-simile  of  his  father  ?" 

Prisoner  :  A  chip  of  the  old  block.     [Laughter.] 

Witness  :  I  used  the  word  "  exaggerated  "  in 
reference  to  his  mental  characteristics. 

Q.  From  your  acquaintance  with  the  prisoner 
what  have  you  to  say  as  to  his  sincerity  ?  A.  I 
never  saw  anything  in  him  that  I  thought  hypo 
critical  or  dishonest.  He  was  always  like  the 
father  in  that  respect.  His  father  was  one  of  the 
most  intensely  sincere  men  that  I  ever  knew. 


244  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

The  witness  went  on  to  narrate  another  incident 
that  occurred  one  evening  at  the  supper- table. 
Charles  Guiteau,  or  Julius,  as  they  called  him,  came 
to  the  table  late  and  was  spoken  to  by  his  father 
in  a  peremptory  and  offensive  tone,  and  Charles, 
passing  behind  his  father's  chair,  struck  his  father 
on  his  back  or  neck,  and  his  father  jumped  from 
his  chair,  and  the  two  clinched  and  struggled, 
until  finally  Charles  surrendered,  and  then  they 
withdrew  from  the  table  by  themselves,  talked  the 
matter  over,  came  back,  and  went  on  with  their 
meal.  There  had  been  no  previous  quarrel  be 
tween  them,  and  this  was  a  sudden  outburst. 

The  witness  said  that  Luther  Guiteau's  wife 
came  to  the  front  porch  one  evening,  as  the  witness 
and  Luther  Guiteau  were  sitting  there,  and  put 
ting  her  arms  around  her  husband's  neck  said, 
"Will  you  love  me?"  Luther  jumped  from  his 
chair  and  said,  "  No.  I  never  will  love  you  until 
you  submit  to  Jesus  Christ."  He  had  been  try 
ing  to  bring  her  to  his  way  of  thinking  about  the 
Oneida  Community,  and  that  was  what  he  meant 
by  that  remark.  One  evening,  at  a  meeting  of 
the  "  circle,"  as  it  was  called  (a  religious  and 
social  circle),  an  elderly  gentleman  and  his  wife 
were  present,  who  had  been  investigating  some 
what  the  doctrines  of  the  Oneida  Community. 
There  seemed  to  be  one  serious  family  difficulty 
in  the  way  of  their  joining  the  Community,  and 
that  was  that  their  son,  a  young  man  from  20  to 


A  SSA  SSIN  OF  PR  ESI  DENT  GARFIELD.  245 

25  years  of  age,  was  violently  opposed  to  it.  This 
couple  went  on  and  told  their  story,  to  which 
Luther  Guiteau  listened  very  quietly.  At  last  he 
jumped  from  his  seat  and  said,  "  I  will  tell  you 
what  to  do.  Take  a  knife  and  slay  him  as  Abra 
ham  did  Isaac."  His  manner  was  so  exceedingly 
shocking  that  it  paralyzed  the  tongue  of  every 
one  present.  Luther  attended  church  occasion 
ally;  sometimes  the  Presbyterian  Church,  some 
times  the  Methodist. 

Prisoner :  His  idea  was  that  he  was  so  good 
that  he  did  not  need  to  go  to  church.  He  was  a 
church  unto  himself. 

Mr.  North's  examination  was  continued  on  Sat 
urday,  November  26,  but  nothing  of  special  inter 
est  was  developed.  He  was  followed  on  the  wit 
ness-stand  by  Senator  John  A.  Logan,  of  Illinois, 
whom,  as  he  was  sworn,  the  prisoner  greeted  with  : 
"  How  are  you,  Mr.  Senator.  I  am  glad  to  see 
you,"  but  his  greeting  met  with  no  response. 

The  witness  detailed  two  interviews  which  he 
had  with  the  prisoner.  The  first  was  about  the 
1 2th  or  the  i5th  of  March  last,  in  the  morning. 
The  prisoner  came  to  his  room,  uninvited.  The 
first  thing  that  the  prisoner  did  was  to  pull  a 
pamphlet  out  of  his  pocket  and  hand  it  to  the  wit 
ness,  saying  that  it  was  a  speech  which  he  had  de 
livered  in  the  recent  canvass  and  asking  witness 
to  read  it.  It  was  a  speech  entitled  "  Garfield 
against  Hancock.'7  The  prisoner  then  said  :  "That 


246  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  QUITE AU, 

speech  elected  Mr.  Garfield  President  of  the 
United  States."  He  then  commenced  talking 
about  a  position  that  he  desired,  saying  that  he 
had  the  promise  of  an  appointment  as  Consul- 
General  to  France.  He  said  he  had  seen  the  Sec 
retary  of  State,  who  had  promised  him  this  ap 
pointment,  provided  he  could  get  Senator  Logan's 
recommendation.  Witness  said:  "  I  do  not  know 
you  and  cannot  recommend  you."  Guiteau  then 
went  on  to  say  that  he  resided  in  Chicago  and 
was  a  constituent  of  the  witness',  and  that  witness 
was  under  obligation  to  recommend  him  for  these 
reasons. 

Q.  Was  there  anything  particularly  noticeable 
in  his  appearance  ?  A.  He  was  rather  peculiarly 
clad  for  the  season,  there  being  snow  on  the  street 
at  the  time.  He  had  on  his  feet  a  pair  of  sandals, 
or  rubbers  or  something  of  that  kind.  He  had 
no  stockings.  He  wore  a  light  pair  of  panta 
loons  and  a  common  ordinary  coat.  A  day  or  two 
afterwards  he  came  again  to  my  room  uninvited. 
He  still  insisted  on  my  signing  his  recommen 
dation,  reiterating  the  same  statement  as  before,  of 
his  having  a  promise  of  the  place  if  I  would  re 
commend  him.  I  again  declined.  I  tried  to  dis 
pose  of  the  matter  as  quickly  as  possible.  I  said 
to  him :  "  The  first  time  I  see  the  Secretary  of 
State  I  will  mention  your  case  to  him."  I  did  not 
say  that  I  would  recommend  him,  but  simply  that 
I  would  mention  his  case ;  and  I  intended  to  do  so, 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  34? 

but  probably  in  a  different  way  from  what  he  sup 
posed  I  would. 

Q.  From  what  you  saw  of  the  prisoner  on 
those  occasions,  and  from  what  was  said  and  done 
by  him,  did  you  form  any  opinion  as  to  his  mental 
soundness  or  unsoundness  ?  A.  I  am  not  an  ex 
pert  and  do  not  know  whether  I  should  answer  the 
question. 

Court:  You  may  give  an  opinion  in  accordance 
with  your  observation. 

Witness:  I  thought  there  was  some  derange 
ment  of  his  mental  organization,  but  to  what  ex 
tent  I  could  not  say. 

The  next  witness  was  George  D.  Hubbard,  a 
farmer  of  Oneida  County,  New  York.  He  lived 
less  than  half  a  mile  from  the  Community,  but 
(indignantly)  was  never  connected  with  it  as  a 
member.  In  1863  he  worked  for  three  months 
for  the  Community,  to  which  the  prisoner  at  that 
time  belonged.  He  worked  in  the  same  shop  with 
witness.  He  was  a  nervous,  quick-tempered  man. 
If  anything  was  said  to  disturb  him  he  would  "get 
riled"  and  gesticulate  wildly  and  talk  in  a  mys 
terious  manner.  He  would  sit  for  hours  in  a 
corner  saying  nothing  to  anybody.  At  other  times 
he  would  be  cheerful.  On  one  occasion  he  told 
witness  that  he  aspired  to  be  the  leader  of  the 
Community. 

This  witness  was  followed  by  Edward  M.  Smith, 
of  Chicago.  He  had  been  clerk  to  the  Republican 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


Central  Committee  in  New  York  during  the  last 
campaign.  Witness  had  seen  the  prisoner  sev 
eral  times.  He  wanted  to  be  placed  on  the  rolls 
as  a  speaker.  He  did  not  appear  to  be  able  to 
put  half  a  dozen  sentences  together,  and  witness 
did  not  think  that  he  had  received  any  assignment. 

Prisoner  :  This  gentleman  was  not  in  a  position 
to  know  whether  I  did  or  not.  He  was  only  a 
clerk. 

Mr.  Davidge  :  That  is  what  I  thought. 

Prisoner:  Jewell  was  the  fellow  who  did  the 
business  —  Jewell  and  Hooker  and  Dorsey,  and  the 
rest  of  those  fellows. 

Mr.  Scoville  then  read  the  deposition  of  J.  W. 
Turner,  of  Dakota  Territory,  who  deposes  to  hav 
ing  known  Mrs.  Maynard  and  Mrs.  Parker,  sisters 
of  Luther  W.  Guiteau,  and  to  having  regarded 
them  as  insane.  John  A.  Moss,  a  colored  lawyer, 
who  resides  near  the  Government  Asylum  for  the 
Insane,  was  the  next  witness.  He  had  seen  the 
prisoner  at  the  Executive  Mansion  fifteen  or 
twenty  times  during  the  months  of  May  and  June. 
He  thought  he  was  a  crazy  man  when  he  first  saw 
him.  Witness  had  seen  many  crazy  people,  and 
this  man  appeared  to  him  to  be  crazy.  He  had 
never  heard  the  prisoner  say  anything. 

Mrs.  Frances  Scoville,  sister  to  the  prisoner  and 
wife  to  his  counsel,  was  next  called  to  the  witness 
stand.  She  gave  her  age  as  forty-five.  Her  father 
was  Luther  W.  Guiteau,  of  Freeport,  111.,  and  her 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


mother  Jane  Howe  Guiteau.  The  prisoner  is 
forty  years  old.  He  was  about  seven  years  old 
when  her  mother  died.  She  remembered  her 
mother  from  the  time  the  witness  was  three  years 
old.  She  was  sick  a  very  long  time  at  the  time 
that  Charles  was  born. 

Witness  never  saw  her  mother  walk  in  the  street 
after  that.  There  were  two 
children  born  subsequently  ; 
Luther  Theodore,  who  died 
when  he  was  two  years  old, 
and  who  was  born  with  a 
crooked  foot  and  limb,  and 
Julia  Catherine,  who  died 
when  twenty  months  old  — 
six  weeks  after  her  mother's 
death.  Her  mother's  sick 
ness  was  attended  with  a 

.  »  -  -  -  lYJLXXO.OS^V^VJLAji. 

very  severe  pain  in  her  head,  euiteau-s  sister. 

and  her  hair  never  grew  again.  Her  first  recollec 
tion  of  Charles  was  that  he  was  a  troublesome  child, 
because  he  was  very  active  and  smart.  He  was  sent 
to  school  when  quite  young  —  about  six  years  old  — 
to  learn  to  talk.  He  could  make  a  noise,  but 
could  not  talk.  He  used  the  word  "ped"  for 
"  come,"  and  the  word  "  pail  "  for  "  quail."  His 
father  punished  him  for  it,  but  that  made  no 
difference. 

Witness  was  married  in  January,   1853,  while 
Charles  was  living  with  his  grandfather.     Subse- 


MRS.     SCOVILLE. 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

quently,  when  he  was  twelve  years  old,  he  lived 
with  witness  for  a  year  in  Chicago,  where  he  went 
to  school.  She  recollected  nothing  peculiar  about 
i  him  then  except  that  he  was  very  affectionate  and 
she  was  very  much  attached  to  him.  Then  he 
went  to  his  father,  and  subsequently,  when  he  was 
seventeen  years  old,  he  came  again  to  live  with 
witness  at  Oak  Park,  near  Chicago.  He  attended 
school  at  the  Commercial  College,  Chicago,  and 
after  that  he  went  back  to  Freeport,  and  from 
there  he  went  to  Ann  Arbor  to  attend  school.  She 
went  to  Ann  Arbor  to  see  him,  as  she  had  been 
informed  that  he  was  going  on  worse  than  her 
father  had  ever  done.  She  found  that  he  had 
abandoned  his  studies  and  was  giving  his  whole 
time  and  attention  to  studying  the  publications  of 
the  Oneida  Community.  She  argued  with  him 
for  a  whole  evening,  appealing  to  him  to  go  on 
quietly  like  other  young  men,  and  to  give  up  all 
that  stuff.  Her  appeals  had  no  effect  upon  him, 
however,  and  she  made  up  her  mind  that  he  was 
crazy.  She  told  her  uncle,  who  lived  at  Ann 
Arbor,  to  pay  no  more  attention  to  him,  but  let 
him  go  his  own  way,  as  he  was  "  clear  gone  daft." 
She  afterwards  visited  him  at  the  Oneida  Com 
munity,  but  could  hardly  have  any  conversation 
with  him  as  they  were  not  left  alone  a  moment 
together.  She  noticed  that  he  acted  like  a  person 
who  had  been  bewildered,  struck  on  the  head,  or 
had  partly  lost  his  mind. 
22 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  2  r  j 

The  witness  went  on  to  relate  the  prisoner's 
history,  including  his  admission  to  the  bar  (at 
which  she  was  very  much  surprised),  his  marriage 
and  his  separation  from  his  wife,  down  to  the 
time  he  visited  her  in  Wisconsin  in  1875.  She 
noticed  then  a  great  change  in  his  personal  ap 
pearance.  He  was  also  very  hard  to  get  along 
with,  and  he  used  to  get  in  a  "hifalutin"  state. 
He  seemed  willing  to  do  anything  that  he  was  told, 
but  got  very  much  befogged  and  could  not  do  it. 
She  related  the  incident  of  his  attacking  her  with  an 
axe.  She  had  given  him  no  provocation,  but  had 
got  out  of  patience  with  him.  It  was  not  the  axe 
that  frightened  her  so  much  as  it  was  the  look 
of  his  face.  He  looked  like  a  wild  animal.  She 
retreated  into  the  house  and  ran  up  to  her 
daughter's  room.  Then  she  called  Olds,  the 
hired  man,  and  said :  "  Here,  take  this  boy  and 
put  him  off  the  place."  Olds  took  hold  of  him 
and  brought  him  into  the  dining-room. 

On  Monday,  November  28th,  Mrs.  Scoville's 
testimony  was  continued  as  follows:  He  visited 
her  in  Wisconsin  in  the  summer  of  1875.  At  this 
time  he  was  full  of  wild  ideas  about  establishing  a 
great  newspaper,  buying  the  Chicago  Inter-Ocean, 
etc.  Then  she  described  how  the  prisoner  soaped 
the  hickory  trees,  and  insisted  that,  if  they  were 
not  apple  trees,  they  were  certainly  peach  trees. 
He  became  very  violent  about  it,  but  the  witness 
was  very  much  amused.  The  prisoner  that  sum- 


252 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J,    GUITEAU, 


mer  spent  most  of  his  time  reading  the  news 
papers  and  a  Testament  which  he  kept  in  his 
pocket.  He  said  he  was  preparing  to  go  in  with 
Moody  and  Sankey.  Finally,  the  witness'  son, 
Louis,  would  not  stand  any  more  nonsense  from 
her  brother,  and  put  him  off  the  place  without  her 
knowledge.  She  was  very  much  worried  about 
him,  but  a  day  or  two  afterward  he  rode  past  with 
a  lady,  and  tipped  his  hat  to  the  witness,  as  if  to 
say  he  was  all  right.  On  his  return  she  sent  him 
to  the  cottage  kept  by  the  hired  man,  where  he 
spent  a  couple  of  days. 

The  witness  testified  that  in  the  summer  of 
1877,  her  brother  Charles  was  still  interested  in 
some  big  scheme,  lecturing.  He  denounced 
everybody  who  did  not  believe  as  he  did,  and  said 
they  were  going  to  hell.  He  used  to  talk  with 
one  of  the  boarders  at  Beaver  Lake — Mr.  Bur 
rows —  on  the  subject  of  the  second  coming  of 
Christ,  until  she  told  him  he  must  not  talk  to  her 
boarders.  Her  brother  never  bore  any  malice. 
It  was  remarkable  that  he  never  laid  up  anything 
against  anybody.  In  this  respect  she  thought 
he  was  silly.  Her  brother  had  always  been  in 
dead  earnest  about  everything.  She  never  knew 
him  to  do  as  other  young  men  in  regard  to  games, 
or  swimming,  or  anything  of  that  kind.  In  ladies' 
society  he  was  always  very  polite  and  pleasant. 

George  T.  Burrows  was  called  to  the  stand. 
He  became  acquainted  with  the  prisoner  at  Mrs. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD,  2  r  <, 

Scoville's  country  place.  The  prisoner  had  often 
talked  with  him  about  his  book  on  the  second  coming 
of  Christ,  till  finally  the  witness  stopped  talking 
to  him  because  the  prisoner  became  violent.  Wit 
ness  also  related  an  incident  of  the  prisoner,  at 
that  time,  dropping  a  puppy  dog  out  of  an  up 
stairs  window,  breaking  the  dog's  leg,  and  ^the 
prisoner  saying  that  he  did  not  think  it  would 
hurt  the  dog ;  he  supposed  the  dog  would  strike 
on  his  feet  just  as  a  cat  does  ;  witness,  from  all 
these  circumstances  and  from  the  general  conduct 

o 

of  the  prisoner,  had  decided  in  his  own  mind  that 
the  prisoner  was  either  a  fool  or  crazy. 

Charles  S.  Jocelyn,  of  Lenox,  New  York,  busi 
ness  manager  of  the  Oneida  Community,  testified 
that  he  knew  the  prisoner  when  he  was  a  member 
of  that  Community;  he  came  there  in  1860  and 
remained  for  nearly  five  years ;  excessive  egotism 
was  his  peculiar  characteristic ;  he  was  the  most 
egotistical  man  the  witness  ever  knew,  so  much  so 
as  to  be  eccentric  and  different  from  other  men ; 
he  was  absorbed  in  himself  and  had  such  a  high 
idea  of  himself  as  to  think  himself  a  superior  be 
ing,  qualified  to  be  a  leader  and  manager  of  men  ; 
he  never  noticed  any  insincerity  about  him ;  he 
had  a  very  strong  religious  bias  toward  exaltation 
and  even  fanaticism ;  he  attempted  to  deliver  lec 
tures  there,  but  they  were  mainly  made  up  of 
ideas  rehashed  from  former  publications  of  the 
Oneida  Community ;  there  was  nothing  original 
22 


254 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 


in  them ;   they  were  not  a  great  success  as  works 
of  art  or  literary  productions. 

John  W.  Guiteau,  of  Boston,  the  prisoner's 
brother,  was  the  next  witness.  He  went  over  the 
prisoner's  history  so  far  as  known  to  him,  and  re 
lated  a  conversation  in  which  witness  upbraided 
him  for  not  paying  Mr.  Scoville  $500  or  $600  that 
he  owed  him ;  the  prisoner  said  that  he  had  paid 

it  long  ago ;  that  he  had 
given  Mr.  Scoville  his  note 
a  year  ago,  which  note 
Mr.  Scoville  could  get  dis 
counted  in  a  bank  in  Chi 
cago,  but  that  he  was  too 
stubborn  and  ugly  to  do  it; 
he  insisted  that  that  was  a 
discharge  of  the  debt,  and 
the  witness  thought  that  he 
JOHN  WILSON  GUITEAU.  was  a  fool  or  crazy. 
Witness  described  the  first  conversation  which 
he  had  with  the  prisoner  in  company  with  Mr. 
Scoville  at  the  jail.  The  conversation  was 
first  carried  on  between  Mr.  Scoville  and  the  pri 
soner,  who  said  that  the  name  of  Guiteau  would  get 
honor  instead  of  dishonor;  that  it  would  be 
"  Guiteau,  the  patriot,"  instead  of  "  Guiteau,  the 
assassin ;"  he  spoke  very  loud,  louder  than  in  any 
exhibition  here ;  I  said  to  him  finally : 

"  I  believe  you  are  honest  in  your  view," 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  2r  e 

"  Now,"  I  said,  "  are  you  willing  to  abide  by  the 
decision  of  the  jury  and  suffer  the  penalty  imposed 
by  the  Court,  if  they  fail  to  agree  to  your  views  ?" 

He  said.:  "  I  am." 

I  said:  "They  say  that  you  are  afraid  of  your 
life."  "That  is  not  so,"  he  answered;  "I  do  not 
care  a  snap  for  my  life." 

"  Now,"  I  said,  "  I  think  you  are  telling  me  the 
truth.  Which  would  you  prefer,  to  be  hanged  by 
the  verdict  of  the  jury  or  shot  by  the  mob?" 

"  I  do  not  want  either,"  he  cried,  and  he  flew  as 
quick  as  a  flash  into  a  corner  and  got  behind  a 
table ;  when  he  saw  the  ludicrousness  of  it  he 
laughed  at  his  sudden  emotion,  and  we  all  laughed; 
his  eyes  looked  wild  ;  I  became  satisfied  from  that 
conversation  that  he  was  sincere  as  to  his  reason 
for  shooting  the  President,  and  thoroughly  believed 
in  the  inspiration;  I  believe  him  insane. 

On  cross-examination,  the  witness  stated  that 
his  opinion  as  to  the  sanity  of  his  brother  under 
went  a  change  last  October,  when  he  received  from 
Freeport,  111.,  some  of  the  prisoner's  letters  to  his 
father.  That  changed  opinion  was  confirmed  by 
the  interviews  he  had  had  with  Charles  since  he 
came  here. 

Q.  Did  you  state  in  conversation  with  John  H. 
Barren,  of  Concord,  N.  H.,  that  the  prisoner  was 
sane  ?  A.  I  did  not. 

Q.  Did  you  state  that  the  act  was  the  result  of 
"pure  cussedness?"  A.  I  do  not  think  I  did  in 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


the  connection  in  which  you  use  it  ;  I  believe  that 
my  brother's  case  was  one  of  demonism  —  that  he 
was  possessed  of  the  devil. 

Q.  And  you  stated  that  substantially  to  Mr. 
Barren  ?  A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Did  you  there  state  that  the  prisoner  was 
not  insane,  but  was  responsible  ?  A.  I  stated  that 
I  believed  him  to  be  responsible,  but  not  insane  ; 
I  stated  that  constantly  and  always  until  about  the 
receipt  of  those  letters;  I  said  that  I  believed  that  be 
fore  God  he  was  responsible  for  his  act  —  morally  re 
sponsible  —  because  I  believed  that  some  time  in 
his  past  life  he  made  a  choice  to  follow  the  path 
of  evil  rather  than  of  good  ;  that  so  far  as  regarded 
his  responsibilty  before  the  law,  I  could  not  deter 
mine  that,  because  the  law  dealt  with  a  man's 
body;  the  interpretation  of  the  law  as  to  insanity 
I  was  not  to  judge. 

In  response  to  questions  on  the  subject  of  life 
insurance  policies,  the  witness  mentioned  several 
that  he  had  taken  —  the  last  in  September  or  Oc 
tober,  1  88  1  —  and  admitted  that  he  had  replied  in 
the  negative  to  the  usual  question  as  to  there 
being  insanity,  consumption  or  scrofula  in  the 
family. 

The  witness  was  then  inquired  of  as  to  his  put 
ting  the  prisoner  out  of  his  office  in  Boston,  and 
he  related  the  circumstances.  The  prisoner  called 
at  the  office  and  complained  that  the  witness  had 
told  certain  persons  that  the  prisoner  was  worth- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


less  and  would  not  pay  his  board-bills.  Witness 
told  him  that  he  had  never  meddled  with  him  by 
making  any  voluntary  statement  ;  but  that  when 
any  one  came  to  inquire  about  him  he  told  the 
truth.  My  brother  said  (he  continued)  that  I  had 
no  business  to  make  any  statement  about  him  or 
his  indebtedness  ;  that  I  was  no  better  than  he 
was  ;  that  I  was  in  debt  (which  unfortunately  was 
true),  and  we  had  some  strong  talk;  I  told  him 
that  if  he  was  honest  in  the  publication  of  his  book, 
and  in  his  method  of  life,  he  should  not  continue 
to  deceive  people  about  his  means  of  paying  for 
his  board. 

Prisoner:  I  never  deceived  people  about  my 
board-bills. 

Witness  :  He  said  that  he  wished  to  live  as 
Christ  did  ;  that  Jesus  Christ  went  to  a  house  and 
if  the  people  received  Him  He  blessed  them  ; 
that  he  was  working  for  God,  and  that  he  con 
sidered  God,  and  not  himself,  responsible  for  his 
board  ;  we  had  some  further  conversation,  and  I 
drove  him  to  the  wall,  then  his  spirit  of  antagonism 
came  up  and  he  attempted  to  drive  me  to  the  wall 
by  asserting  that  I  was  no  better  than  he  ;  at  this 
time  I  told  him  he  had  better  leave  the  office,  and 
I  caught  hold  of  him  and  rushed  him  to  the  door  ; 
he  was  passing  ahead  of  me  and  he  said,  as  he 
went  along,  that  I  was  a  thief  and  a  scoundrel  ; 
I  slapped  him  on  the  side  of  the  neck  with  the 
back  of  my  hand  and  he  turned  round  and  gave 


2rg  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

me  one  on  the  side  of  the  face,  for  which  I  very 
much  respected  him. 

The  witness  told  again  the  story  of  insanity  in 
the  family,  and  then  was  subjected  to  a  re-direct 
examination,  in  which  he  was  asked  as  follows : 

Q.  What  do  you  mean  by  saying  your  brother 
was  possessed  of  a  demon  or  a  devil  ?  A.  The 
religious  theory  is  that  there  are  two  forces  in  the 
universe,  one  under  Satan  or  the  devil  and  one 
under  God  or  Jesus  Christ ;  my  father  held  to  the 
view  that  there  were  living  in  the  world  those 
who  were  seized  of  the  devif  or  Satan,  and  of 
Christ  or  God ;  he  believed  that  those  two  forces 
were  at  war,  one  with  the  other,  and  that  at  pre 
sent  and  since  the  fall  of  man  Satan  had,  to  a  very 
great  extent,  dominion  on  the  earth  to  possess 
himself  of  all  those  he  could,  and  that  he  did 
possess  himself  of  all  those  who  were  not  abso 
lute  believers  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  Saviour, 
and  who  had  not  been  saved  from  the  power  of 
sin  by  a  complete  union  with  the  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ ;  that  all  evil,  all  disease,  all  de 
formity,  all  infirmity  was  the  result  of  sin  or  the 
admission  of  those  who  had  a  free  will  that  they 
were  under  the  dominion  of  Satan  or  the  evil 
spirit,  or  of  the  evil  nature.  That  was  my  father's 
theological  view ;  it  was  my  brother's ;  it  was 
mine.  And  so  I  believe  that,  at  some  time  in  my 
brother's  life,  as  he  had  a  free  will  to  choose  good 
or  evil,  he  must  have,  through  his  evil,  through  his 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


wilfulness,  through  his  stubbornness,  through  his 
perversity  of  nature,  allowed  Satan  to  gain  such  a 
control  over  him  that  he  was  under  the  power  of 
Satan  ;  that  idea  is  the  one  on  which  I  based  my 
opinion  that  my  brother  was  morally  responsible 
to  God,  but  perhaps  not  responsible  according  to 
human  or  legal  responsibility,  being  in  one  sense 
insane. 

Prisoner  :  You  certainly  have  that  thing  wrong 
side  up. 

Witness  :  Perhaps  I  have. 

Prisoner  :  That's  very  poor  theology,  and  a  very 
poor  position  for  you  to  take. 

The  next  witness  was  Mrs.  Sarah  W.  Parker,  of 
Chicago,  the  widow  of  Augustus,  one  of  the  sons 
of  the  prisoner's  aunt  Anna.  Her  husband  died 
in  the  Insane  Asylum  at  Elgin,  111.  He  had  be 
come  insane  from  disappointment  in  not  obtaining 
a  piano  agency  which  he  expected;  she  visited 
him  several  times  at  the  asylum  ;  her  husband  was 
the  prisoner's  cousin  ;  the  prisoner  and  his  wife 
came  to  her  house  in  Chicago  ;  witness  had  then 
two  children,  a  son  and  daughter,  twelve  and 
thirteen  years  old  ;  she  had  requested  the  prisoner 
to  cease  visiting  at  her  house,  because  he  had  pro 
posed  to  educate  her  daughter  so  as  to  marry  her. 
This  was  in  1876,  soon  after  her  husband  became 
insane  ;  he  seemed  to  have  fallen  very  desperately 
in  love  with  her  little  daughter,  and  to  want  to 
marry  her.  Witness  formed  an  opinion  at  that 


26o  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   QUITE  AL, 

time  about  the  condition  of  the  prisoner's  mind ; 
she  thought  him  crazy. 

The  next  witness  was  Fernando  Jones,  of  Chi 
cago,  who,  in  1878,  had  boarded  at  the  same 
house  with  Guiteau  in  that  city ;  for  four  years 
witness  had  been  one  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
who  had  supervision  over  the  Insane  Asylum  at 
Jacksonville ;  that  was  previous  to  the  time  he 
met  Guiteau  ;  he  had  formed  an  opinion  as  to 
Guiteau's  mental  condition,  considering  him  to  be 
of  unsound  mind,  and  what  some  authorities 
would  call  in  a  state  of  incipient  insanity.  At 
that  time  the  prisoner  was  memorizing  lectures 
on  Mormonism  and  the  second  coming  of  Christ, 
and  talked  very  incoherently. 

The   examination   of  this  witness  having  been 

o 

completed,  a  buzz  of  expectancy  ran  through  the 
assemblage  as  Mr.  Scoville  asked  that  the  pris 
oner  be  sworn. 

The  prisoner  nervously  proceeded  to  the  wit 
ness-stand  in  the  custody  of  two  deputy  marshals, 
and  the  oath  was  administered  to  him.  He  then 
whispered  a  few  words  to  a  policeman  who  was 
standing  near  the  witness-box,  and  immediately 
the  three  deputies  ranged  themselves,  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  behind  the  prisoner,  who,  apparently 
more  at  ease,  said  inquiringly  to  the  Court,  "I  can 
sit  down  ?"  "  Yes,"  replied  the  Court,  and  the 
prisoner  seated  himself  accordingly,  and  seemed 
quite  satisfied. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


Mr.  Scoville  then  stated  he  merely  wished  the 
prisoner  to  identify  some  letters. 

Prisoner:  1  understand  from  Mr.  Scoville  that 
all  I  am  to  do  is  to  identify  some  letters.  I  do  not 
appear  as  a  witness,  aside  from  that.. 

Mr.  Scoville  then  presented  a  number  of  let 
ters  dating  from  1857  to  1868,  which  were  identi 
fied  by  the  prisoner,  who  made  running  comments 
upon  his  penmanship  :  "  This  does  not  look  like 
my  present  handwriting  ;  there  is  a  decided  im 
provement  shown  here  ;  this  is  better  than  I  can 
do  now  ;  this  is  as  fine  as  steel-plate." 

There  were  about  twenty  letters  which  had  been 
written  by  the  prisoner  to  his  father,  his  sister 
(Mrs.  Scoville),  and  his  brother  (J.  W.  Guiteau) 
and  to  Mr.  Scoville. 

The  identification  having  been  completed,  the 
Court  at  3  o'clock  adjourned. 

On  Tuesday  morning,  November  29th,  Guiteau 
was  called  to  the  stand  again.  He  seemed  ner 
vous  and  unsteady.  Several  officers  were  sta 
tioned  about  him  and  he  sat  while  on  the  stand. 
After  considerable  quibbling  on  the  part  of  the 
prisoner  as  to  what  was  expected  of  him  at  that 
stage  of  the  proceedings,  and  after  the  reading  of 
letters  identified  on  the  previous  day,  but  which 
were  of  little  interest,  the  examination  of  the  pris 
oner  proceeded.  It  covered  in  detail  remem 
brances  of  his  early  life,  school-days,  Oneida  Com 
munity,  his  father's  peculiarities  as  to  theology, 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


prayer,  healing  diseases,  his  own  newspaper  ex 
periences,  admission  to  the  bar,  arrest  and  impris 
onment  at  New  York,  etc.,  all  of  which  have 
already  been  given  in  full  in  this  volume.  His 
exact  idea  on  the  second  coming  of  Christ  was 
thus  defined:  "The  second  coming  of  Christ 
occurred  on  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  .in  the 
clouds  directly  over  Jerusalem  ;  that  it  was  an 
event  in  the  spiritual  world,  and  that  the  destruc 
tion  of  Jerusalem  was  the  outward  sign  of  His 
coming  ;  I  hold  that  for  all  these  eighteen  cen 
turies  the  churches  have  all  been  in  error  in  sup 
posing  the  second  coming  of  Christ  to  be  in  the 
future!" 

The  witness  then  went  on  to  relate  his  various 
failures  in  delivering  his  lecture  in  Chicago,  Evans- 
town,  Racine,  Kalamazoo,  Ann  Arbor,  Detroit, 
Ypsilanti,  Toledo,  Cleveland,  Buffalo,  Washington, 
Rochester,  Syracuse,  Albany,  Troy  and  elsewhere. 
He  frequently  laughed  as  he  repeated  some  of  the 
humorous  incidents  of  his  failures  ;  the  various 
times  that  he  was  put  off  railroad  cars  for  not  pay 
ing  his  fare  and  arrested  for  not  paying  his  board- 
bills.  At  other  times  he  grew  excited  in  the 
assertion  that  in  all  that  he  clid  he  was,  like  St. 
Paul,  engaged  in  the  service  of  God,  and  that  God 
was  therefore  responsible  for  his  board-bills.  On 
this  latter  point,  he  said  :  I  did  not  give  up  lectur 
ing  because  of  my  repeated  failures  ;  I  stuck  to 
my  work  ;  my  idea  was  that,  as  I  was  working  for 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


the  Lord  I  would  do  my  duty  and  let  him  take 
care  of  me  as  He  felt  disposed  ;  I  went  into  that 
whole  business  to  serve  the  Lord,  not  to  make 
money;  success  or  failure  was  nothing  to  me  ;  I 
considered  that  the  Lord's  affair  ;  my  duty  was  to 
continue  with  my  work  ;  Paul  had  no  success,  be 
cause  he  had  new  ideas  on  theology  ;  I  kept  think 
ing  of  Paul  all  the  time  and  how  he  stuck  to  his 
theology. 

This  line  of  testimony  was  resumed  on  Wed 
nesday,  November  3Oth,  it  appearing  among  other 
evidences  of  ill-success  that  he  had  sold  less  than 
fifty  copies  of  his  book.  Proceeding  with  his  nar 
rative,  Guiteau  said  : 

That  brings  us  down  to  January  i,  1880.  I  had 
no  money,  but  got  on  the  best  way  I  could,  and 
made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  go  into  politics. 
[At  the  word  "  politics,"  the  audience,  which  had 
been  listening  in  a  listless  way,  became  suddenly 
silent,  and  paid  the  strictest  attention.]  I  had  a 
great  interest  in  General  Grant's  nomination.  The 
Chicago  Convention  came  on  and  I  watched  the 
proceedings  with  great  interest.  Finally,  General 
Garfield  was  nominated.  I  was  in  Boston  at  the 
time,  but  decided  that  I  would  go  to  New  York 
and  offer  my  services  to  the  National  Committee 
and  take  an  active  part  in  the  election  of  General 
Garfield.  I  left  Boston  on  the  nth  of  June.  I 
was  on  the  Stonington  when  she  struck  the  Nar- 
ragansett,  and  thought  my  time  had  come  then, 


25J.  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

but  it  hadn't.  I  was  in  New  York  about  two 
>veeks.  I  had  my  speech  "Garfield  against  Han 
cock"  in  manuscript. 

Q.  How  long  were  you  at  work  upon  that 
speech?  A.  A  couple  of  days.  The  speech  as 
originally  prepared  was  quite  a  different  affair.  I 
remodeled  most  of  it  in  New  York.  I  called  upon 
General  Arthur  at  his  house  two  or  three  times, 
but  he  was  not  at  home.  I  called  upon  him  at  his 
office  in  relation  to  that  speech  and  to  my  taking 
part  in  the  campaign.  I  went  to  Poughkeepsie 
and  advertised  the  speech,  but  it  did  not  draw.  I 
went  to  Saratoga  and  tried  to  deliver  it  there,  but 
no  one  came,  as  usual.  [Laughter.]  I  came 
back,  and  saw  General  Arthur  and  other  prom 
inent  men  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel.  Of  course 
they  knew  me,  and  were  glad  to  see  me,  and  all 
that.  Grant  and  Conklin^  and  that  kind  of  men 

o 

were  there.  I  sent  my  speech,  which  was  printed 
on  the  5th  of  August,  to  all  the  men  connected 
with  that  conference,  also  to  the  leading  editors 
of  New  York. 

Q.  Did  you  get  any  assignment  to  speak?  A. 
I  was  only  actually  assigned  once,  some  time  in 
August. 

Q.  What  place  was  that?  A.  I  think  in  Twen 
ty-Fifth  Street,  at  a  colored  meeting. 

Q.  What  was  the  result  there?  A.  I  delivered 
part  of  the  speech  and  gave  the  newspaper  men 
the  rest.  I  didn't  exactly  like  the  crowd. 


ASSASSIN  Of  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


265 


The  witness  then  detailed  his  interviews,  at 
tempted  interviews,  correspondence  with,  and  let 
ters  to  various  prominent  men,  including  Presi 
dent  Garfield,  Secretary  Elaine,  etc.,  and  bringing 
his  narrative  up  to  about  May  ist,  1 88 1,  about 
which  time,  he  ceased  to  press  for  the  Paris  con 
sulship.  The  examination  then  proceeded  thus : 

Q.  After  you  gave  up  applying  for  the  office, 
what  employed  your  mind  mostly?  A.  I  was 
thinking  about  the  political  situation  more  than 
anything  else.  I  kept  reading  the  papers  and 
kept  being  worried  and  perplexed,  and  in  a  great 
state  of  mind  about  the  future  of  the  country.  I 
think  that  that  was  the  prevailing  thought  in  my 
mind  after  I  saw  the  President  and  General  Grant 
and  that  kind  of  men  were  wrestling  and  at  log 
gerheads.  I  saw  the  Nation  was  going  to  wreck, 
(emphasizing  the  sentence  with  a  bang  on  the 
railing.) 

Q.  You  have  spoken  of  inspiration.  What  do 
you  mean  by  that?  State  when  it  came  first  to 
your  mind,  and  the  circumstances  connected  with 
it.  A.  Inspiration,  as  I  understand  it,  is  where  a 
man's  mind  is  taken  possition  of  by — by — by  a 
superior  power,  and  where  he  acts  outside  of  his 
own  natural — outside  of  himself. 

Q.  State  the  circumstances  of  the  commence 
ment  of  that  inspiration  with  you.  A.  It  came  to 
me  one  Wednesday  evening,  the  evening  Senators 
Platt  and  Conkling  resigned.  At  this  time  there 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

was  great  excitement  in  the  public  mind  in  regard 
to  the  resignations,  and  I  felt  greatly  perplexed 
and  worried  about  it.  I  retired  about  8  o'clock 
that  evening,  greatly  depressed  in  mind  and  spirit 
over  the  political  situation.  '  Before  I  went  to 
sleep  the  impression  came  on  my  mind  like  a  flash 
that  if  the  President  was  out  of  the  way  the  diffi 
culty  would  be  all  solved.  The  next  morning  I 
had  the  same  impression.  I  kept  reading  the 
papers,  and  had  my  mind  on  the  idea  of  the  re 
moval  of  the  President.  This  idea  kept  working 
me  and  working  me  and  grinding  and  oppressing 
me  for  about  two  weeks.  All  this  time  I  was  hor 
rified,  and  I  kept  throwing  off  the  idea,  and  did 
not  want  to  give  it  my  attention  at  all.  In  fact,  I 
shook  it  off,  but  it  kept  growing  on  me  and  grow 
ing  on  me,  until  at  the  end  of  two  weeks  my  mind 
was  thoroughly  fixed  as  to  the  necessity  of  the 
President's  removal.  As  to  the  divinity  of  the 
inspiration  (excitedly),  I  had  not  the  slightest 
doubt  about  the  divinity  of  the  inspiration  from 
the  ist  of  June  to  the  present  moment.  I  felt  just 
as  confident  as  to  the  divinity  of  the  inspiration  as 
I  do  now. 

Q.  Did  you  talk  with  any  one  about  it?  A.  I 
never  mentioned  it  to  a  soul  at  any  time. 

Q.  After  the  idea  took  full  possession  of  your 
mind  about  the  ist  of  June,  what  did  you  do  with 
reference  to  that  subject  ?  A.  I  kept  praying 
about  it,  and  praying  about  it,  and  praying  about  it. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


267 


Q.  What  was  the  substance  of  your  prayer? 
A.  The  substance  of  my  prayer  was  that,  if  it  was 
the  Lord's  will  I  should  not  remove  the  Presi 
dent  ;  He  would  in  some  way,  by  His  providence, 
interrupt  it.  That  is  always  the  way  I  have  found 
the  Lord.  When  I  feel  a  pressure  upon  me  to  do 
anything,  and  when  I  feel  doubt  about  it,  I  keep 
praying  to  the  Deity  that  he  may  show  it  in  soro^e 
way,  if  I  am  wrong. 

O.  Did  you  get  any  information  from  the  Deity 
as  to  whether  you  were  right  or  wrong  in 
answer  to  your  prayer  ?  A.  (in  a  loud  voice  and 
excited  manner)  :  I  never  had  the  slightest  shadow 
of  a  doubt  on  my  mind  as  to  the  divinity  of  the 
act  and  as  to  the  necessity  for  it  to  the  great 
American  people  (with  a  bang  on  the  railing). 

Q.  Wherein  did  it  seem  to  you  necessary  for 
the  good  of  the  American  people  ?  A.  To  unite 
the  factions  of  the  Republican  party,  which  were 
then  in  a  most  bitter  and  deplorable  state. 

Q.  Did  you  consider  that  necessary  to  the  good 
of  the  American  people  ?  A.  Most  decidedly. 

Q.  Why  ?  A.  Because  in  the  way  that  things 
were  going  on  last  spring,  another  war  was  going 
to  break  out. 

Q.  How  would  that  result  be  reached  ?  A.  It 
would  be  reached  by  the  destruction  of  the  Repub 
lican  party. 

Q.  State  how  it  was  necessary,  in  order  to 
avoid  war,  that  the  breach  in  the  Republican 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   QUITE  A  U, 


party  should  be  healed.  A.  The  idea  was.  if  the 
disruption  of  the  Republican  party  was  to  continue 
as  it  was  going  on  last  spring,  the  Democrats 
would  have  taken  entire  possession  of  the  Gov 
ernment,  and  by  the  mismanagement  of  finances, 
would  precipitate  the  country  into  another  war. 
That  was  the  central  idea  that  was  talked  of  in  the 
National  Republican  Committee,  and  on  the  stump, 
and  by  all  the  leading  Republican  papers  in  the 
canvass  —  that  the  safety  of  the  Republic  depended 
upon  the  Republican  party  continuing  in  control  ; 
that  the  Democratic  party  and  the  rebel  element 
were  not  yet  sufficiently  civilized  to  take  posses 
sion  of  the  national  finances. 

Q.  Did  you  believe  it?  A.  Most  emphatically! 
more  than  I  believe  that  I  am  alive. 

The  prisoner  was  then  questioned  regarding 
his  interviews  in  the  jail  with  medical  experts,  de 
tectives,  and  the  District-Attorney  and  his  steno 
grapher.  As  he  was  showing  signs  of  fatigue, 
and  said  he  was  not  well,  and  that  he  always  felt 
better  after  dinner,  a  recess  for  an  hour  was 
taken.  After  the  recess  the  prisoner  again  took 
the  stand,  and  was  questioned  by  Mr.  Scoville  as 
to  his  experience  with  special  providences. 

Witness  :  I  have  always  believed  in  special  provi 
dence.  There  are  four  distinct  times  in  my  life 
when  I  claim  special  inspiration  :  first,  when  I 
went  to  the  Oneida  Community  ;  second,  when  I 
left  the  Community  to  go  to  New  York  to  estab- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


269 


lish  a  theocratic  paper,  to  be  the  organ  of  the 
Deity  in  this  world  ;  third,  when  I  left  a  good  law 
business  in  Chicago  to  o-o  out  lecturing-  and  work- 

o  o  o 

ing  for  the  Lord ;  the  fourth  time,  I  claim  special 
Divine  authority  when  I  attempted  to  remove  the 
President.  Those  are  the  four  distinct  times  when 
I  claim  inspiration. 

Q.  On  what  special  occasion  before  you  were 
arrested  were  you  protected  by  special  provi 
dence  ?  A.  I  think  the  preservation  of  my  life  at 
Newark  was  one,  when  I  jumped  from  the  train 
which  was  going  thirty-five  miles  an  hour.  An 
other  was  when  I  was  on  the  Stonington,  when 
we  were  all  in  momentary  expectation  of  going 
down.  Since  my  arrest,  it  has  been  my  constant 
feeling  all  the  way  through.  When  I  was  shot  at 
and  missed,  and  when  last  Summer  a  mob  was 
howling  for  me.  I  had  no  anxiety  for  myself,  and 
(excitedly)  I  have  no  anxiety  as  to  the  result  of 
this  trial. 

Q.  What  was  the  first  instance  of  Divine  inter 
position  after  you  went  to  jail  ?  A.  When  that 
keeper  attempted  to  shoot  me  and  put  his  pistol 
within  eight  inches  of  my  head.  He  denied  the 
whole  thing,  but  I  am  satisfied  that  I  am  right. 
General  Crocker  said  it  was  all  a  mistake,  and  he 
hushed  it  up.  I  do  not  care  to  discuss  it,  but  the 
fact  is,  that  man  came  into  my  cell  deliberately  to 
shoot  me,  and  the  only  reason  he  did  not  is  that  I 
happened  to  be  awake.  The  witness  here  de- 


TRIAL  OF  CHARFES  J.  GUITEAU, 


scribed  in  detail  the  manner  in  which  he  had  seized 
the  keeper  and  pinioned  his  arms.  The  special 
providence  here  was,  that  the  man  had  10  or  12 
seconds  in  which  to  fire,  but  that  the  Lord  stopped 
him. 

Q.  What  was  the  next  interposition  ?  A.  I 
claim  a  certain  interposition  when  Mason  fired  at 
me. 

Witness  then  described  this  incident  at  length. 
He  was  standing  in  a  cramped  position.  If  he 
had  been  standing  up,  the  ball  would  have  gone 
through  his  heart,  just  what  Mason  aimed  for. 

Q.  Has  there  been  any  special  providence 
since  ?  A.  I  think  Jones's  failure  to  shoot  me  was 
providential.  I  was  standing  directly  behind  the 
driver  of  the  van.  I  was  in  a  quite  happy  frame 
of  mind.  I  had  a  fine  jury  and  was  pleased  with 
the  Court,  and  I  was  pleased  with  the  way  every 
thing  was  going.  I  was  praising  the  Lord  for  all 
this.  Just  as  we  got  to  the  Capitol  I  saw  a  flash, 
and  in  a  moment  I  saw  another,  and  then  the 
horses  began  to  run  away.  I  thought  that  my 
guard  was  killed  and  that  the  horses  were  running 
away.  I  said  to  my  guard.  "Ed,  are  you  shot?" 
"  No,"  said  he,  "  are  you  ?"  The  providence  was 
that  the  ball  struck  me  here  (pointing  to  his  torn 
coat-sleeve).  It  did  not  strike  my  arm,  but  the 
concussion  made  my  arm  sore.  If  it  had  gone  two 
or  three  inches  to  the  right  it  would  have  gone 
through  my  heart.  It  was  a  good  shot,  consider- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  2  y  j 

ing  the  fact  that  the  van  was  going  and  that  he 
was  moving ;  I  should  say  it  was  an  exceedingly 
good  shot.  The  Lord  saved  me  from  that. 

O.  Had  you  any  ill-feeling  against  the  Presi 
dent  ?  A.  Decidedly  not.  I  considered  him  as 
my  political  and  personal  friend.  I  never  had  the 
slightest  ill-will  toward  General  Garfield  in  any 
shape.  I  simply  executed  what  I  considered  the 
Divine  will  for  the  good  of  the  American  people, 
to  unite  the  two  factions  of  the  Republican  party, 
and  prevent  another  war.  I  undertake  to  say  that 
the  people  of  this  country,  when  they  know  that 
another  war  has  been  prevented,  instead  of  say 
ing  "Guiteau,  the  assassin,"  will  some  of  these 
days  say  "  Guiteau,  the  patriot." 

Q.  What  was  your  idea  as  to  the  removal  of 
the  President  ?  A.  It  was  established  in  my  mind 
about  the  i  st  of  June,  and  I  never  doubted  from 
that  moment  to  this  about  the  divinity  of  the  act, 
and  the  necessity  of  it. 

Q.  Were  you  easy  in  your  mind  ?  A.  I  was 
under  a  great  pressure,  and  that  is  why  I  looked 
gaunt  and  thin.  I  could  not  eat  well.  I  was 
ground  and  ground,  and  pressed  and  pressed,  and 
I  could  get  no  relief  until  it  was  actually  done.  I 
felt  greatly  relieved  when  the  thing  was  over.  I 
felt  happy.  I  had  not  felt  so  happy  for  weeks  as 
I  did  when  I  was  in  the  cell  on  the  2d  of  July,  and 
I  thanked  God  that  it  was  all  over. 

Q.  Have   you   a    distinct    recollection    of   the 


272 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


occurrences  on  the  2d  day  of  July  ?  A.  Oh,  cer 
tainly. 

Q.  Do  you  remember  who  was  with  you  going 
to  the  police-office  ?  A.  Those  two  witnesses  who 
were  on  the  stand.  Officer  Kearney  was  the  first 
man  that  seized  me.  I  was  in  the  act  of  putting 
up  the  pistol  when  the  officer  came  up.  He  was 
very  much  excited.  He  said :  "  You  have  shot 
the  President  of  the  United  States."  I  said : 
"  Keep  quiet,  my  friend  ;  I  want  to  get  to  the  jail." 
I  wanted  first  to  get  away  from  him,  but  when  I 
saw  I  could  not,  I  said  I  wanted  to  go  to  jail.  As 
soon  as  I  said  "jail"  he  cooled  down.  We  started 
from  the  depot  at  once. 

Q.  Have  you  supposed  since  you  have  been  in 
jail  that  you  have  influence  with  President  Arthur? 
A.  I  have  not  had  any  occasion  to  test  it.  He 
was  my  friend  last  spring  and  fall. 

Q.  Have  you  written  any  letters  to  him  ?  A.  I 
have  addressed  several  letters  to  him.  I  don't 
know  whether  they  were  delivered  or  not.  From 
the  way  I  have  been  treated  in  other  matters  I 
suppose  not.  I  presume  Arthur  is  my  friend,  but 
I  have  never  asked  any  favor  of  him  since  I  got 
into  this  trouble,  though  I  am  the  man  that  made 
him,  through  my  inspiration. 

Q.  How  ?  A.  (apparently  amazed)  Why,  my 
inspiration  made  him. 

The  examination  proceeded  from  this  point,  on 
the  lawsuit  with  the  Herald,  Guiteau's  aspirations 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


273 


to  the  Presidency,  his  search  for  a  wife  and  other 
minor  matters. 

The  direct  examination  of  the  prisoner  here 
closed,  and  the  cross-examination  was  begun  by 
Mr.  Porter,  who  put  his  questions  to  the  prisoner 
with  great  deliberation,  pointedness  and  solemnity 
of  manner. 


PRESIDENT  ARTHUR] 

Q.  Mr.  Guiteau,  I  think  you  are  about  forty 
years  of  age  ?  A.  Forty  on  the  8th  of  Septem 
ber  last,  Judge. 

Q.  Are  you  conscious  of  being  a  man  of  con- 


274  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU. 

siderable  ability?  A.  I  would  not  express  an 
opinion  on  that,  Judge. 

Q.  Are  you  a  man  of  truth  ?  A.  Most  decid 
edly,  Judge,  I  am  in  dead  earnest  in  anything 
I  do. 

Q.  I  think  you  were  converted  at  the  age  of 
seventeen,  or  thereabout  ?  A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  From  that  time  on  you  have  been  a  man  of 
truth,  have  you  not?  A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  And,  as  you  believe,  a  Christian  man  ?  A. 
I  hope  so,  Judge. 

Q.  You  have  hated  all  shams  ?  A.  Most  de 
cidedly. 

Q.  And  you  do  now  ?     A.  I  do. 

O.  You  have  had  no  bad  habits  ?  A.  I  think  not. 

O.  Did  you  pass  through  the  ordeal  of  the 
Oneida  Community  and  maintain  your  virtue  ?  A. 
Well,  not  absolutely. 

O.  I  thought  you  said  yesterday  that  you  did  ? 
A.  I  said,  or  intended  to  say  (although  misre- 
ported),  that  I  had  been  mostly  a  strictly  virtuous 
man.  They  left  out  the  word  "  mostly."  That  is 
what  I  intended  to  say.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I 
had  to  do  with  three  distinct  women.  But  there 
is  no  pleasure  in  that  kind  of  business  there. 
Aside  from  that,  I  was  strictly  virtuous. 

Q.  Did  you  believe  in  the  doctrines  of  the 
Oneida  Community  while  you  were  there  ?  A.  I 
did.  I  thought  that  the  Community  was  the  com 
mencement  of  God's  kingdom  on  earth. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


The  prisoner  was  then  cross-examined  in  re 
gard  to  his  business  as  a  lawyer  in  Chicago  and 
New  York,  the  result  of  it  all  being  that  he  only 
had  some  collection  cases  in  Chicago,  and  a  simi 
lar  kind  of  business  in  New  York,  mixed  up  with 
some  stray  jobs  in  connection  with  getting  prison 
ers  out  of  the  Ludlow  Street  Jail,  for  which  jobs 
he  paid  a  commission  to  a  prisoner  in  the  jail, 
who  was  a  big  talker  and  who  would  recommend 
him  to  other  prisoners.  He  admitted  that  he  was 
behind  in  his  office-rent  in  New  York,  and,  per 
haps,  in  some  of  his  collections,  but  thought  that 
$1,000  would  pay  all  those  debts,  together  with 
his  board-bills. 

After  these  subjects  had  been  disposed  of  the 
cross-examination  proceeded  as  follows  : 

Q.  You  have  always  been  a  very  persistent  and 
and  persevering  man  ?  A.  Yes. 

O.  Have  you  been  a  man  of  a  good  deal  of 
force  of  will  and  determination  ?  A.  (with  a 
laugh)  :  Some  people  think  so. 

Q.  That  has  been  a  characteristic  of  yours  from 
boyhood,  has  it  not  ?  A.  I  have  been  very  ear 
nest  in  what  I  undertook. 

Q.  You  determined  to  kill  General  Garfield,  did 
you  not  ?  A.  I  decline  to  answer  that.  That  is  a 
a  very  strong  way  to  put  it  (with  some  excite 
ment).  I  consider  myself  the  agent  of  the  Deity 
in  the  matter  ;  I  had  no  personal  volition  in  the 
matter. 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GLITEAU, 


Q.  Did  General  Logan  say  to  you  that  he  would 
endorse  your  application  for  the  Paris  consulship? 
A.  I  understood  him  to  say  so. 

Q.   Did  he  say  so  ?     A.  Yes  ;  he  did  say  so. 

O.  Then  when  General  Logan  swore  he  did 
not  say  he  would  recommend  you,  he  did  not  tell 
the  truth?  A.  I  would  not  like  to  say  that.  One 
evening,  at  the  boarding-house,  I  asked  him  to  sign 
my  application,  and  he  said  he  had  no  pen  just 
there  to  do  it  with,  but  told  me  to  come  up  in  his 
room  next  morning  and  he  would  do  it.  Next 

o 

morning  he  had  changed  his  mind.  I  do  not  want 
to  make  any  reflections  upon  General  Logan,  but 
that  is  the  way  all  these  politicians  do. 

Q.  Did  Secretary  Elaine  promise  you  the  Paris 
consulship  if  General  Logan  would  recommend 
you?  A.  No,  sir;  he  did  not. 

Q.  Did  you  say  to  Officer  Scott,  on  leaving  the 
depot  after  the  murder  of  the  President,  "General 
Arthur  is  now  President."  A.  I  decline  to  answer 
that. 

Q.  Why  do  you  object  to  answering  that?  A. 
I  suppose  I  did  say  that  (then  he  added  excitedly)  ; 
I  want  it  distinctly  understood  that  I  did  not  do 
that  of  my  own  personal  volition,  but  on  the  in 
spiration  of  the  Deity.  I  never  would  have  shot 
the  President  on  my  own  personal  account. 

Q.  Who  bought  the  pistol,  the  Deity  or  you  ? 
A.  I  said  the  Deity  inspired  the  act,  and  the  Deity 
would  take  care  of  it. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


Q.  The  question  is:  Who  bought  the  pistol? 
A.  The  Deity  furnished  the  money  with  which  I 
bought  the  pistol.  I  was  the  agent. 

Q.  I  thought  it  was  somebody  else  who  fur 
nished  the  money.  A.  It  was  the  Deity  who  fur 
nished  the  money  with  which  I  bought  the  pistol. 

Q.  He  furnished  you  all  the  money  you  ever 
had  on  earth,  did  he  ?  A.  I  think  so. 

Q.  From  whose  hand  was  it  that  you  were  fur 
nished  the  money  with  which  you  bought  that  mur 
derous  weapon  ?  A.  It  is  of  no  consequence 
(somewhat  flurried  and  excited).  Mr.  Maynard 
swore  he  loaned  me  gi  z. 

Tr        w 

Q.  Did  he  ?     A.  Yes,  he  loaned  me  money. 

Q.  What  did  you  do  with  that  money  ?  A.  I 
used  it  for  several  purposes. 

Q.  What  were  they  ?  A.  I  have  no  objection 
to  stating  frankly  that  I  got  $15  from  Maynard, 
and  that  I  used  $10  of  it  to  buy  that  pistol  with. 

Q.  Did  you  deny,  when  he  was  on  the  stand, 
that  that  was  the  money  with  which  you  bought 
the  pistol  ?  A.  No,  Sir  ;  I  never  denied  it,  be 
cause  that  is  the  truth,  But  it  is  of  no  conse 
quence  whether  I  got  the  money  from  Maynard, 
or  whether  I  pawned  my  coat  for  it. 

Q.  Were  you  inspired  to  borrow  $15  form  May 
nard  ?  A.  No,  sir  ;  Mr.  Maynard  did  not  know 
what  I  wanted  the  money  for. 

Q.  Were  you  inspired  to  buy  that  British  bull 
dog  ?  A.  I  do  not  pretend  that  I  was  inspired  to 


278  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GU2TEAU, 

do  that  specific  act.  But  I  claim  that  the  Deity 
inspired  me  to  remove  the  President,  and  that  I 
had  to  resort  to  my  own  means  to  accomplish  the 
Deity's  will. 

Q.  Were  you  inspired  to  remove  him  by  mur 
der  ?  A.  I  was  inspired  to  execute  the  Divine 
will  by  murder,  so  called. 

Q.  You  did  not  succeed  in  executing  the 
Divine  will  ?  A.  I  think  the  doctors  finished  the 
work. 

Q.  The  Deity  tried,  and  you  tried,  and  you  both 
failed,  but  the  doctors  succeeded  ?  A.  The  Deity 
confirmed  my  act  by  letting  the  President  down  so 
gently  as  he  did. 

Q.  Do  you  think  it  was  letting  him  down 
gently  to  let  him  suffer  that  torture,  over  which  you 
professed  to  feel  so  much  solicitude,  during  these 
long  months  ?  A.  The  whole  matter  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  Deity,  and  (impatiently)  I  do  not 
want  to  discuss  it  any  further.  I  appreciate  the 
fact  of  the  President's  long  sickness  as  much  as 
any  person  in  the  world,  but  that  is  a  very  narrow 
view  to  take  of  the  matter. 

Q.  What  time  did  Senator  Conkling  resign  ? 
A.  About  the  I5th  of  May,  I  should  judge. 

Q.  That  was  Monday,  and  you  had  no  inspira 
tion  on  that  day?  A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  Had  you  any  inspiration  on  Tuesday  ?  A. 
No,  sir. 

Q.  On  Wednesday  night  you  went  to  bed  at  8 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


o'clock,  and  then  came  the  inspiration?  A.  It 
came  between  8  and  9  o'clock. 

Q.  Did  you  believe  that  it  was  the  will  of  God 
that  you  should  murder  the  President?  A.  I  be 
lieved  that  it  was  His  will  that  he  should  be  re 
moved  and  I  was  the  appointed  agent  to  do  it. 

Q.  Did  He  give  you  a  commission  in  writing? 
A.  No,  sir. 

Q.»  Did  He  give  it  in  an  audible  tone  of  voice? 
A.  He  gave  it  to  me  by  His  pressure  on  me. 

Q.  Did  He  give  it  to  you  audibly  ?     A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  He  did  not  come  to  you  as  a  "vision  of  the 
night"?  A.  I  do  not  get  my  inspirations  in  that 
way. 

Q.  It  occurred  to  you,  as  you  were  lying  on  your 
bed,  that  if  President  Garfield  were  dead  it  would 
solve  the  whole  difficulty  ?  A.  Yes. 

Q.  *  Did  it  occur  to  you  that  you  were  the  very 
man  to  kill  him  ?  A.  Not  at  that  time.  My  mind 
was  unsettled. 

Q.  Who  did  you  think  then  was  the  man  to  kill 
him  ?  A.  I  had  no  thought  on  the  subject.  The 
mere  impression  came  on  my  mind  that  if  the 
President  were  removed  everything  would  be 
well. 

Q.  Did  you  contemplate  his  removal  otherwise 
than  by  murder?  A.  No,  sir  (petulantly).  I  do 
not  like  the  word  "  murder." 

Mr.  Porter  :  I  know  you  do  not  like  the  word 
"  murder  ;"  it  is  a  hard  word,  but.  it  is  there. 


2g0  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GlITEAU, 

Prisoner:  I  do  not  recollect  the  actual  facts  in 
that  matter  (excitedly).  If  I  had  shot  the  President 
of  the  United  States  on  my  own  personal  account, 
no  punishment  would  be  too  severe  or  too  quick 
for  me ;  but,  acting  as  the  agent  of  the  Deity, 
that  puts  an  entirely  different  construction  on  the 
act ;  and  that  is  what  I  want  to  put  to  the  Court 
and  the  jury,  and  to  the  opposing  counsel.  That 
is  the  idea  I  want  you  to  entertain,  and  nt>t  to 
settle  down  on  the  cold-blooded  idea  of  murder, 
because  I  never  had  the  first  conception  of  mur 
der  in  the  matter. 

Q.  Do  you  feel  under  great  obligations  to  the 
American  people  ?  A.  I  think  the  American  peo 
ple  may  some  time  consider  themselves  under 
great  obligations  to  me. 

Q.  My  question  was  whether  you  felt  under 
great  obligations  to  them  ?  A.  I  do  not  know  why 
I  should  be 

Q.  Were  you  under  great  obligation  to  the  Re 
publican  party  ?  A.  Not  that  I  know  of. 

Q.  Did  the  Republican  party  ever  give  you  any 
office  ?  A.  I  never  held  any  kind  of  political 
office  in  my  life. 

Q.  And  never  desired  one?  A.  I  had  some 
thought  about  the  Paris  consulship.  That  is  the 
only  office  I  ever  had  the  slightest  thought  about. 

Q.  That  was  the  one  that  resulted  in  the  inspi 
ration  of  murder  ?  A.  No,  sir.  My  getting  it  or 
not  getting  it  never  had  the  slightest  effect  upon 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD, 


my  mind  in  attempting  to  remove  the  Presi 
dent. 

Q.  You  never  desired  the  removal  of  Mr. 
Elaine  ?  A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  And  never  suggested  it  to  anybody?  A. 
No,  sir. 

Mr.  Porter:  Allow  me  to  read  to  you  your  let 
ter,  written  on  the  23d  of  May  —  four  days,  accord 
ing  to  your  account,  after  you  made  up  your  mind 
to  remove  the  President.  Let  me  refresh  your 
recollection  as  to  whether  you  desired  at  that  time 
to  remove  Mr.  Elaine  also. 

Prisoner  :  I  never  had  the  slightest  thought  of 
removing  Mr.  Elaine.  I  had  not  made  up  my 
mind  to  remove  the  President  on  the  23d  of  May, 
nor  until  the  ist  of  June.  For  two  weeks  after  I 
got  the  conception  I  was  shaking  it  off.  My  natural 
feelings  were  all  against  it.  But  the  pressure 
continued  pressing  me  and  pressing  me,  so  that 
at  the  end  of  two  weeks,  and  about  the  i  st  of  June, 
I  had  made  up  my  mind  as  to  the  inspiration  of 
the  act,  and  as  to  the  necessity  for  it. 

Mr.  Porter  :  That  reminds  me  of  another  very 
deliberate  utterance  of  yours,  made  on  the  i6th 
of  June,  the  day  on  which  you  intended  to  murder 
the  President. 

Prisoner:  I  intended  to  remove  him  under 
Divine  pressure  —  never  to  murder  him. 

Q.  Oh,  certainly.  On  the  i6th  of  June,  in  an 
address  to  the  American  people,  which  you  in- 


2g 2  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

tended  should  be  found  on  your  person  after  you 
had  shot  him,  you  said:  "I  conceived  the  idea  of 
removing  the  President  four  weeks  ago."  Was 
that  a  lie  ?  A.  I  conceived  it,  but  my  mind  was 
not  fully  settled  on  it.  There  is  a  difference  be 
tween  conceiving  a  thing  and  actually  fixing  it  in 
your  mind.  You  may  conceive  the  idea  of  going 
to  Europe  in  a  month,  and  yet  you  may  not  go. 
That  is  no  point  at  all. 

Q.  Let  me  return  to  the  subject  of  Mr.  Elaine. 
You  say  in  your  letter  to  the  President:  "Mr. 
Elaine  is  a  wicked  man,  and  you  ought  to  demand 
his  immediate  resignation.  Otherwise,  you  and 
the  Republican  party  will  come  to  grief."  A.  Po 
litical  grief,  not  physical  grief.  Every  intelligent 
man  will  see  that  I  meant  political  grief. 

Q.  Was  that  after  Wednesday  night,  when  you 
conceived  the  idea  of  removing  the  President  ? 
A.  That  was  a  mere  flash,  which  had  not  taken 
shape  or  form  in  my  mind,  and  did  not  take  shape 
or  form  for  over  two  weeks.  All  that  time  I  was 
resisting  the  idea. 

Q.  Then  there  was  no  inspiration  in  May  ?  A. 
No  ;  it  was  a  mere  flash,  an  embryo  inspiration,  a 
mere  impression  which  came  into  my  mind  that 
possibly  it  would  have  to  be  done.  My  mind  was 
fully  made  up  about  the  ist  of  June. 

Q.  You  say  "  about  the  ist  of  June."  Was  it 
on  the  ist  of  June  ?  A.  I  say  in  about  two  weeks 
from  the  i6th  of  May.  During  that  time  I  was 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


283 


resisting  it  with  all  my  might,  all  my  strength,  and 
all  my  prayers.  At  the  end  of  that  time  my  mind 
was  fully  fixed  in  regard  to  the  necessity  and  di 
vinity  of  the  act. 

Q.  Then  the  question  was  not  whether  you 
should  obey  the  inspiration,  but  whether  it  was  an 
actual  necessity?  A.  I  was  finding  out  during 
those  two  weeks  whether  it  was  God's  will  or  not. 
At  the  end  of  two  weeks  I  made  up  my  mind  that 
it  was  His  will,  and  that  it  was  for  the  best  inter 
ests  of  the  American  people.  That  is  the  way 
that  I  get  inspirations. 

Q.  Your  making  up  your  mind  was  not  His 
act?  A.  Yes,  it  was. 

Q.  While  you  were  praying  and  professing  to 
be  in  doubt,  were  you  in  doubt?  A.  For  two 
weeks  I  was  in  doubt,  but  I  never  had  any  doubt 
since  that  time. 

Q.  What  occasioned  the  doubt  ?  A.  Because  I 
wanted  to  know  whether  it  was  the  Deity  that  in 
spired  me.  I  kept  praying  that  the  Deity  should 
not  let  me  make  any  mistake  about  it,  and  the 
Deity  has  not  made  any  mistake  about  it. 

Q.  Why  did  you  have  doubts  about  it?  A. 
Because  all  my  natural  feelings  were  opposed  to 
the  act. 

O.  You  regarded  it  as  murder,  then  ?  A.  So 
called,  yes.  It  was  not  murder  for  me.  All  my 
natural  feelings  were  against  it. 

o  o 

Q.  Why  were   your   natural    feelings   against 


2g^  TRIAL   OJ>'  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

murder?     A.  I  cannot  make  myself  any  better 
understood  than  I  have  done. 

At  this  point  in  the  cross-examination,  which 
the  prisoner  bore  with  considerable  self-possession, 
although  he  occasionally  got  flurried  and  excited, 
the  court  adjourned. 

On  Thursday,  December  2d,  Guiteau  seemed 
very  nervous  and  excitable.  He  was  put  on  the 
witness-stand  at  once,  and  Judge  Porter  pro 
ceeded  with  the  cross-examination.  It  turned,  first, 
upon  the  sense  in  which  Guiteau  claimed  to  have 
been  inspired  to  remove  the  President  by  his  mur 
derous  shot. 

Judge  Porter  then  asked  :  Was  Mason  guilty  of 
a  murderous  assault?  A.  Most  decidedly. 

Q.  Was  Jones  ?     A.  Most  decidedly. 

Q.  Do  you  think  it  was  wrong  ?  A.  Without 
they  can  show  they  acted  as  the  agents  of  the 
Deity,  it  was  wrong ;  if  they  can  show  that,  it  was 
right ;  anything  the  Deity  does  is  always  right. 

O.  How  do  you  know  they  did  not  act  as  agents 
of  the  Deity  ?  A.  I  have  no  knowledge  of  it. 

Q,  But  if  you  knew  they  did  ?  A.  I  know 
nothing  about  them,  and  care  nothing  about  them. 

Q.  But  you  did  care  about  them  yesterday.  A. 
I  never  saw  the  men  ;  I  care  nothing  about  them  ; 
I  have  no  doubt  they  should  be  punished ;  I  ex 
pect  that  the  Court  and  the  American  people  de 
mand  that  they  should  be  punished. 

Q.  Why  should  they  be  punished  ?   A.  Because 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


they  made  an  assault  on  a  citizen  of  the  Republic, 
without  it  was  the  action  of  the  Deity. 

Q.  You  do  not  know  whether  it  was  or  not  ? 
A.  Without  they  can  show  that  they  acted  as 
agents  of  the  Deity,  they  ought  to  be  punished ; 
but  if  they  were  executing  the  Divine  will,  they 
should  be  set  free. 

Q.  Why  do  you  think  they  should  be  punished 
for  shooting  at  you  ?  A.  Because  they  have  no 
right  unless  they  can  show  it  was  the  act  of  the 
Deity;  the  Deity's  action  supersedes  man's  law. 

Q.  What  law  did  they  violate  if  they  shot  at 
you  ?  A.  (impatiently  and  impertinently)  :  What 
law  did  they  violate  if  they  shot  at  you  ? 

Q.  That's  what  I  ask  you  ?     A.  I  ask  you. 

Q.  Persistently:  What  law  did  they  violate? 
A.  They  violated  the  law  on  the  statute-book  of 
this  District ;  the  only  way  they  can  mitigate  that 
violation  is  showing  that  they  acted  as  agents  of 
the  Deity ;  the  Deity's  law  supersedes  the  law  of 
any  man. 

Mr.  Porter:  Do  you  think  it  was  wrong  for 
Mason  to  shoot  at  you  ? 

Prisoner,  angrily:  I  am  not  an  expert,  and  I 
decline  to  answer  any  more  questions  on  that 
point ;  I  am  not  afraid  of  you,  Judge  Porter ;  I 
know  bigger  men  than  you ;  I  have  seen  you 
shake  your  finger  before,  in  New  York ;  I  am  not 
afraid  of  you. 

Mr.    Porter:    If  Mason  shot    at    you  with  in- 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   QUITE  A  U, 


tention  to  take  your  life  without  trial,  would  he 
have  done  wrong? 

Prisoner:  I  decline  to  answer. 

Mr.  Porter:  Are  you  afraid  that  your  answer 
would  criminate  you  ? 

Prisoner  :  I  decline  to  give  an  opinion  about 
Mason  or  Jones  ;  they  are  in  the  hands  of  the  law 
and  let  the  law  take  its  course  ;  let  these  men  de 
fend  themselves  in  the  best  way  they  can.  I  care 
nothing  for  them. 

Q.  Do  you  believe  in  the  Ten  Commandments  ? 
A.  Yes. 

O.  Have  you  higher  evidence  that  the  Supreme 
Ruler  of  the  universe  said  to  you  "Thou  shalt 
kill/*  than  you  have  that  He  said  "Thou  shalt  not 
kill"? 

Prisoner,  excitedly  :  I  do  not  entertain  the  idea 
that  there  was  any  murder  in  the  matter  ;  no  more 
murder  in  removing  General  Garfield  than  it  was 

o 

to  kill  a  man  during  the  war,  and  who  would  con 
tend  that  the  shooting  of  a  man  during  the  war 
was  either  murder  or  homicide  ?  I  do  not  want 
to  discuss  this  matter  with  you  ;  it  is  altogether 
too  sacred  a  matter  to  make  light  of  it,  and  I  will 
not  have  it. 

Witness  was  closely  questioned  about  the  pur 
chase  of  the  pistol,  and  was  asked  why  he  bought 
the  one  with  an  ivory  handle  instead  of  a  plain 
one.  He  replied,  "Because  I  thought  it  worth  a 
dollar  more." 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


287 


Judge  Porter :  Did  you  not  say  that  it  would 
look  better  in  the  Patent  Office  ? 

Witness  admitted  that  he  might  have  believed 
or  thought  that  the  pistol  would  sometime  be 
placed  in  the  State  Department.  Shortly  after 
ward,  Guiteau  became  very  indignant  at  Judge 
Porter's  use  of  the  word  "murder,"  and  shouted 
fiercely,  "You  seem  to  delight  in  the  use  of  the 
words  'kill'  and  'murder.'  There's  no  use  of  your 
whining  in  that  way.  The  mere  outward  fact  of 
how  I  removed  the  President  has  nothing  to  do 
with  this  case." 

Mr.  Porter  :  After  you  had  bought  the  revolver, 
being  unused  to  firearms,  did  you  practice  with  it? 
A.  I  went  down  to  Seventeenth  Street  and  fired 
it  off  over  the  river. 

Q.  What  did  you  shoot  at  ?  A.  I  shot  at  a 
sapling. 

Q.  Why  did  you  want  to  shoot  at  a  sapling; 
you  had  no  divine  command  for  that?  A.  I  wanted 
(and  here  the  witness  hesitated  for  some  time)  to 
fire  it  two  or  three  times ;  I  knew  nothing  about 
a  weapon ;  I  expected  to  have  to  use  it  and  famil 
iarized  myself  with  the  outward  use  of  the  weapon. 

Q.  You  did  not  know  how  to  fire  a  pistol,  but 
this  was  the  work  of  the  Deity?  A.  (apparently 
in  a  violent  passion  and  gesticulating  wildly): 
There  is  no  use  of  your  whining  in  this  kind  of 
way ;  you  might  as  well  rest ;  you  are  making 
entirely  too  much  talk  about  the  outward  act  of 


2gg  TRIAL   OF  CHARFES  J.   QUITE AU, 

the  Deity ;  I  say  you  have  to  go  back  and  look  at 
the  motive. 

Q.  The  motive  was  to  kill .  A.  (interrupt 
ing  excitedly):  To  remove  the  President  for  the 
good  of  the  American  people. 

Q.  When  did  you  begin  watching  the  Presi 
dent's  movements  ?  A.  About  the  time  he  and 
Mrs.  Garfield  went  to  Long  Branch. 

Q.  Did  you  not  go  to  the  White  House  grounds 
to  see  when  he  went  out?  A.  I  did  not  go  near 
the  White  House  grounds,  or  if  I  did  it  was  in  the 
latter  part  of  June ;  I  used  to  sit  in  the  park  op 
posite  the  White  House. 

Q.  For  the  purpose  of  observing  him  and  watch 
ing  your  chance  ?  A.  I  wanted  to  execute  the 
Divine  will,  and  to  obviate  all  this  loose  talk  I  will 
state  that  I  would  have  removed  the  President 
any  time  from  the  middle  of  June  until  I  shot  him, 
if  I  had  had  an  opportunity;  at  anytime  I  would 
have  executed  the  Divine  will  from  the  middle  of 
June  until  the  time  I  actually  did  shoot  him. 

Q.  Where  were  you  on  the  morning  of  June  16, 
when  you  wrote  your  address  to  the  American 
people  ?  A.  That  was  prepared  at  the  Arlington. 

Q.  In  this  address  you  say,  "  I  conceived  the 
idea  of  removing  the  President  four  weeks  ago?" 
A.  (impatiently) :  Oh!  that  is  the  great  point  you 
tried  to  make  yesterday ;  I  meant  that  the  first  im 
pression  came  upon  me  about  the  i6th  of  May, 
and  in  about  four  weeks  it  became  a  fixed  neces- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


289 


sity  to  remove  him  ;  I  went  to  work  after  the  i  st 
of  June  to  prepare  myself,  in  an  orderly  way,  to 
do  the  act ;  that  is  all  there  is  in  this  whole  case. 

Q.  (reading  from  the  address) :  "Not  a  soul 
knows  of  my  purpose"?  A.  That  is  correct. 

Q.  Then  you  did  "purpose"  it  for  four  weeks 
before?  A.  That  is  not  literally  true. 

Q.  (reading)  :  "  I  killed  the  President  because 
he  proved  a  traitor  to  the  men  that  made  him,  and 
thereby  imperiled  the  life  of  the  Republic?  A. 
That  was  the  idea;  that  was  the  cause  under 
Divine  pressure. 

The  witness  was  then  asked  whether,  if  he  had 
been  appointed  consul  to  Paris,  he  would  have 
killed  the  President,  and  in  reply  repeated  his  an 
swer  of  yesterday  that  he  would  not  have  accepted 
the  Paris  consulate  after  June  ist. 

O.  If  General  Garfield  had  sent  your  name  to  the 
Senate  you  would  have  laid  in  wait  and  murdered 
him  ?  A.  I  would  have  sent  it  right  back  after  the 
ist  of  June;  my  whole  heart  and  mind  and  in 
spiration  were  in  removing  him. 

Q.  Do  you  think  that  it  would  have  been  a 
grateful  return  to  President  Garfield  for  appoint 
ing  you  to  the  consulship  ?  A.  I  would  not  have 
accepted  the  office. 

Q.  Did  you  have  any  malice  ?  A.  (interrupting) : 
I  repudiate  you  for  making  that  allusion ;  you 
know  as  well  as  I  do  that  I  never  had  any  malice; 
he  was  my  personal  and  political  friend. 

25 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

Witness  then  explained  that  his  personal  friend 
ship  with  President  Garfield  consisted  in  speaking 
with  him  once,  and  his  political  of  belonging-  to  the 
same  political  party.  He  did  not  consider  it  neces 
sary  to  be  a  man's  bedfellow  to  be  his  friend. 

Q.  (dramatically,  and  modulating  his  tone  at 
the  close  of  the  question:  And  you  had  no  ill-will  ? 
A.  (imitating  and  mockingly) :  I  had  no  ill-will 
against  him. 

Q.  And  no  ill-will  against  your  sister  when  you 
raised  an  axe  against  her  ?  A.  I  never  raised  an 
axe  against  her. 

Q.  You  had  no  ill-will  against  your  brother 
when  you  struck  him  ?  A.  I  never  struck  him. 

Q.  You  think  that  General  Garfield  was  to 
blame  in  appointing  Mr.  Elaine  Secretary  of  State? 
A.  I  think  most  decidedly  that  it  was  a  very  un 
wise  thing ;  I  say  that  it  was  an  open  insult  to 
General  Grant  and  Conkling  for  General  Garfield 
to  appoint  their  worst  enemy ;  I  think  that  that 
caused  all  the  harm  (with  a  bang  on  the  railing): 
it  made  it  so  bitter  for  Grant  and  Conkling  and 
Arthur  that  they  would  not  go  to  the  White 
House;  I  say  that  (with  more  banging  of  his  fist  on 
the  railing)  to  the  American  people  and  to  the 
jury  and  to  this  Court. 

Q.  Is  this  what  you  said  in  your  note  to  Mr. 
Elaine,  "  I  am  very  glad  personally  that  the  Presi 
dent  selected  you  for  his  Premier?"  A.  I  said 
that. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


Q.  Was  that  true?  A.  It  was  true  at  that 
time. 

Q.  You  were  glad  ?  A.  I  was  glad  ;  (after  a 
pause)  that  needs  modification,  however. 

Q.  What  modification  does  it  need  ?  A.  The 
modification  is  that  at  that  time  General  Garfield 
had  not  insulted  Grant  and  Conklinp-  by  Robert- 

O          J 

son's  appointment  and  Merritt's  withdrawal. 

The  witness  then  related  how  he  met  General 
Logan  in  New  York  and  Washington,  and  told  of 
his  final  interview  with  Mr.  Elaine  on  the  Paris 
consulship,  as  stated  on  the  direct  examination. 
He  was  asked  whether  at  the  time  of  his  last  in 
terview  with  Secretary  Elaine  he  gave  the  latter 
to  understand  that  he  would  support  him  for  the 
Presidency.  He  replied  in  the  negative.  Upon 
Judge  Porter's  reading,  however,  a  paragraph  from 
a  letter  of  Guiteau  to  Secretary  Elaine  saying  that 
he  (Guiteau)  hoped  to  get  back  from  Paris  in  time 
to  be  of  service  to  him  (Mr.  Elaine)  in  the  Re 
publican  Convention  of  1884,  the  witness  modified 
his  previous  answer  and  admitted  he  had  some 
such  idea. 

About  this  time,  the  prisoner,  who  had  been 
speaking  very  rapidly,  showed  signs  of  considera 
ble  exhaustion,  and  Mr.  Porter  had  got  tired  of 
standing  and  was  occupying  a  seat.  At  the  sug 
gestion  of  the  District-  Attorney  the  Court  there 
fore  took  a  recess  for  an  hour. 

After  the  recess,  the  prisoner  was  again  con- 


292  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   QUITE  A  U, 

ducted  to  the  witness-stand,  looking  very  haggard 
and  worn,  and  his  cross-examination  proceeded. 
It  ran  upon  political  subjects,  of  interest  in  the 
main  for  the  keen  questioning  and  answering  it 
evolved. 

Q.  Did  you  intend,  as  you  said  in  that  letter,  to 
remain  in  Washington  until  you  got  your  commis 
sion  as  consul  to  Paris?  A.  At  that  time  I  did.  I 
was  pressing  my  application  for  the  Paris  consul 
ship  during  the  months  of  March  and  April.  You 
ought  to  make  a  broad  dictinction  in  the  position 
between  the  time  prior  to  the  first  of  May  and  the 
time  after  that. 

Q.  Did  you  write  on  the  7th  of  May  to  President 
Garfield,  whom  you  afterward  shot,  "I  am  sorry 
you  and  Senator  Conkling  are  apart,  but  I  stand 
by  you?"  A.  I  wrote  that;  that  was  the  time  I 
was  trying  to  bring  these  men  together;  I  was 
acting  the  part  of  a  peace-maker. 

Q.  Did  you  write  to  President  Garfield  on  the 
lothof  May:  "I  have  got  anew  idea  about  1884. 
If  you  work  your  possition  for  all  it  is  worth  you 
can  be  nominated  and  elected  in  1884.  *  *  * 
Run  the  Presidency  on  your  own  account.  Strike 
out  right  and  left.  The  American  people  like 
pluck  and  in  1884  we  w^^  Put  vou  *n  again"? 

A.  I  wrote  that  letter. 

Q.  Did  it  express  your  then  opinion  and  inten 
tion?  A.  It  expressed  my  opinion;  I  had  no 
special  intention  about  it, 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


Q.  You  added  a  postscript:  "  I  will  see  you  about 
the  Paris  consulship  to-morrow,  unless  you  hap 
pen  to  send  in  my  name  to-day  "  ?  A.  That  is  the 
way  I  felt  and  talked,  but  that  was  long  before 
this  political  disruption. 

Q.  Did  you  think  that  President  Garfield,  after 
reading  this  letter,  would  give  you  the  Paris  con 
sulship?  A.  I  had  no  special  thought  on  the  sub 
ject. 

Q.  After  that,  on  the  1  6th  of  May,  did  you  write 
to  President  Garfield  a  letter  marked  ("Private"), 
saying:  "Until  Saturday  I  supposed  Mr.  Elaine 
was  my  friend  in  the  matter  of  the  Paris  consul 
ship,  but  after  his  tone  on  Saturday,  I  judge  he  is 
trying  to  run  the  State  Department  in  the  interest 
of  the  Elaine  element"? 

Prisoner,  with  a  violent  bang  on  the  railing: 
Yes,  and  that  is  the  truth  about  it;  I  hit  him  square 
there,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  Blnine  went  back 
on  me;  because  I  was  a  Grant  man,  and  he 
thought  he  would  put  a  Elaine  man  in  the  Paris 
consulship. 

Q.  Were  you  ever  inspired  with  the  idea  that 
President  Garfield  would  he  re-elected  ?  A.  I  did 
not  have  any  inspiration  on  that  subject  at  all.  It 
was  a  mere  casual  thought  of  my  own.  I  did  not 
need  inspirations  for  that  kind  of  work. 

Q.  How  came  you  to  write  to  Mr.  Garfield  on 
the  1  3th  of  May  :  "The  idea  of  1884  flashed  upon 
me  like  an  inspiration  and  I  believe  it  will  come 

25* 


294 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU. 


true*?  A.  All  these  letters  were  written  prior  to 
General  Garfield's  disrupting  the  Republican 
party,  and  it  is  mean  and  unfair  in  you  to  distort 
my  letter.  After  he  disrupted  the  Republican 
party  by  bringing  Grant  and  Conkling  down  on 
him  there  was  a  very  different  condition  of  affairs. 

Q.  You  said  in  this  letter  that  the  idea  of  1884 
flashed  through  you  like  an  inspiration  ?  A.  But 
Mr.  Garfield  killed  the  idea  by  his  disruption  of  the 
Republican  party. 

Q.  On  the  2d  of  July  you*  wrote  a  letter  to 
"The  White  House  People."  Whom  did  you 
mean  by  the  White  House  people  ?  A.  I  meant 
all  the  inmates  of  the  White  House. 

Q.  Including  Mrs.  Garfield  ?  A.  Of  course — 
the  entire  White  House  family. 

Q.  You  stated  in  that  letter  that  the  President's 
tragical  death  was  a  sad  necessity  ?  A.  Cer 
tainly — a  political  necessity. 

Q.  Did  the  Deity  tell  you  that  ?  A.  That  did 
not  require  any  telling. 

Q.  You  say  "It  will  unite  the  Republican  party." 
Who  told  you  that  ?  A.  It  did  not  require  any 
telling  (with  excitement),  and  that  is  exactly  what 
it  did  do,  too ;  that  shows  that  the  inspiration  was 
correct. 

Q.  Who  told  you  it  would  save  the  Republic  ? 
A.  My  own  judgment  told  me  so,  and  it  proved  to 
be  correct. 

Q.  You  say  that  Mason  fired  at  you  while  under 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


the  protection  of  the  law.     Did  you  esteem  that 
to  be  a  crime  ?    A.  Of  course  that  was  a  crime. 

Q.  Did  it  occur  to  you,  then,  in  the  language  of 
your  letter  to  Mrs.  Garfield  and  the  White  House 
people,  that  "  life  is  a  fleeting  dream,  and  it  mat 
ters  little  when  one  goes  "?  A.  Those  are  my 
sentiments. 

Q.  Does  it  matter  much  to  you  when  you  go  ? 
A.  (coolly)  :  I  have  got  no  great  fear  of  death  ; 
you  are  liable  to  die  in  five  minutes,  and  so  is 
every  one  in  this  court-house  ;  the  only  question  is 
whether  you  are  ready  to  die. 

Q.  Did  you  say  in  your  letter  to  the  White  House 
people,  "  I  presume  the  President  was  a  Christian, 
and  he  will  be  happier  in  paradise  than  here  "? 
A.  I  did,  and  I  am  sure  the  President  is  a  great 
deal  happier  at  this  very  moment  than  any  man  on 
earth. 

Q.  You  have  no  doubt  that  when  you  killed 
him  he  went  direct  to  paradise?  A.  I  believed 
him  to  be  a  good  Christian  man. 

Mr.  Porter,  solemnly:  And  you  believe  that 
the  Supreme  Being  who  holds  the  gates  of  life 
and  death  wanted  to  send  him  to  paradise  for 
breaking  the  unity  of  the  Republican  party,  and 
for  ingratitude  to  General  Grant  and  Senator 
Conkling? 

Prisoner:  His  Christianity  had  nothing  to  do 
with  his  political  character  ?  His  political  record 
was  very  poor,  but  his  Christian  character  was 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU. 


good,  because  he  was  a  good  man,  so  far  as  I 
know,  although  they  did  tell  very  hard  stories 
about  him  in  connection  with  the  Credit  Mobilier 
and  such  things. 

In  reply  to  a  question  why  it  required  a  special 
inspiration  to  shoot  General  Garfield,  he  said  :  It 
required  special  directions  from  the  Deity  to  me  ; 
I  suppose  there  were  a  thousand  men  in  the  Re 
publican  party  who  would  have  shot  General  Gar- 
field  if  they  had  had  the  chance  and  had  got  the 
nerve,  and  the  brain,  and  the  opportunity  to  do  the 
work. 

Q.  Did  it  occur  to  you  that  there,  was  a  com 
mandment,  "Thou  shalt  not  kill"?  A.  The 
Divine  authority  overcame  the  written  law. 

Q.  Was  there  any  higher  Divine  law  than  that 
spoken  on  Sinai  ?  A.  Indeed  there  was. 

Q.  When  you  pointed  that  pistol  at  General 
Garfield  and  sent  that  ball  into  his  backbone,  you 
believed  that  it  was  not  you  but  God  that  pulled 
the  trigger  ?  A.  That  I  was  simply  executing  the 
Divine  will  ;  He  used  me  as  the  agent  in  pulling 
the  trigger;  I  had  no  option  in  the  matter  ;  I  would 
have  done  it  if  I  knew  I  was  to  be  shot  dead  the 
next  moment  ;  the  pressure  was  so  enormous  I 
could  not  resist  it  ;  put  that  down. 

Q.  Did  you  walk  back  and  forth  in  the  depot 
watching  for  him  ?  A.  Yes  ;  I  was  working  my 
self  up,  for  I  knew  the  hour  had  come. 

Q.  Working  yourself  up?     Was  it  necessary 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


297 


to  do  that  to  obey  God  ?  A.  It  was  all  I  could 
possibly  do  to  do  the  act  anyway,  and  I  had  to  work 
myself  up  to  it ;  I  had  to  obey  God  Almighty  if 
I  died  the  next  second. 

Mr.  Porter  then  asked  if  the  prisoner  had  writ 
ten  a  letter  stating  that  he  would  have  killed  the 
President  on  June  18,  if  it  had  not  been  that  Mrs. 
Garfield  was  with  him  leaning  tenderly  on  his  arm. 
The  prisoner  stated  that  that  was  correct  and 
thought  it  spoke  well  for  his  heart.  "My  heart 
would  not  allow  me  to  remove  him  in  the  presence 
of  Mrs.  Garfield.5' 

Q.  What  objection  would  she  have?  A.  A  de 
cided  objection;  she  was  a  sick  lady,  and  the  shock 
might  have  killed  her;  that  was  my  reason  for  not 
doing  it ;  I  only  had  authority  for  removing  the 
President. 

Q.  And  did  not  intend  to  kill  Mrs.  Garfield? 
A.  Decidedly  not ;  I  felt  very  sorry  for  her,  re 
markably  sorry  for  his  children,  and  for  every 
body;  I  was  grieved  that  it  was  necessary  to  save 
the  Republic  from  another  war. 

Counsel  then  branched  off  and  asked  the  pris 
oner  the  necessity  of  requesting  General  Sherman 
to  send  troops  to  the  jail  to  protect  him  for  having 
obeyed  the  Deity?  A.  I  would  have  been  shot 
and  hung  a  hundred  times  if  it  had  not  been  for 
the  troops  at  the  jail. 

Q.  Any  harm  in  that?  A.  That  is  a  matter  for 
the  law  to  pass  upon ;  (impatiently)  I  will  not 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 


have  any  more  conversation  with  you  on  this 
sacred  subject  ;  you  are  making  light  of  a  serious 
matter  and  I  will  not  talk  about  it. 

Q.  Did  you  think  it  wrong  to  remove  President 
Garfield  without  a  trial  ?  A.  I  decline  to  discuss 
the  matter. 

Q.  Did  God  tell  you  that  he  ought  to  be  mur 
dered  ?  A.  That  he  ought  to  be  removed. 

Q.  When  did  He  tell  you  so  ?  A.  I  decline  to 
discuss  that. 

Q.  Would  it  criminate  you  ?  A.  I  don't  know 
whether  it  would  or  not. 

Going  back  to  the  letters,  Mr.  Porter  read  that 
in  which  the  prisoner  stated  that  Garfield's  nom 
ination,  election  and  "removal"  were  acts  of  God, 
and  then  asked:  Who  nominated  him?  A.  The 
Chicago  Convention. 

Q.  WTas  that  inspired  ? 

The  prisoner  hesitated  and  seemed  about  to 
dodge  the  question,  when  Mr.  Porter  stopped  him 
with  an  impatient  "Now,  now,  now." 

A.  mockingly:  Now,  now,  now;  I  thought  that 
Grant  or  Elaine,  would  be  nominated,  and  when 
Garfield  was  nominated  on  the  thirty-sixth  ballot, 
it  was  an  act  of  God;  the  facts  surrounding  his 
election  would  sustain  the  position  that  it  was  an 
act  of  God,  and  the  facts  surrounding  his  removal 
would  sustain  the  same  position. 

Q.  Was  the  Chicago  Convention  inspired  ?  A. 
In  a  certain  sense  it  was. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


Q.  In  the  same  sense  that  you  were?  A.  No, 
sir;  I  had  a  positive  and  direct  inspiration. 

At  this  point  of  the  testimony  the  prisoner  com 
plained  of  being  fatigued,  saying  he  was  not  used 
to  speaking  five  hours  at  a  time,  and  the  Court, 
at  a  quarter  of  3,  adjourned. 

This  days  proceedings  were  quite  unique.  Fre 
quently  Guiteau  and  Judge  Porter  were  talking  at 
the  same  time,  the  former  eliciting  laughter  by  his 
comments  on  the  the  latter's  style  of  interrogat 
ing  him  and  by  his  objections  against  what  he 
deemed  the  unfair  method.  In  explanation  of  his 
letters,  Guiteau,  with  a  great  flourish,  repeated  a 
large  portion  of  their  contents.  When  Judge 
Porter  once  said,  "  No,  no,  no,"  by  way  of  stopping 
the  circumlocution  of  Guiteau's  response,  the 
latter  with  enraged  mockery  replied,  "  Naw,  naw, 
naw."  One-half  of  Guiteau's  answers  to  the  cross- 
examination  was  a  running  parody  on  the  inter 
rogatories.  Altogether  the  scene  was  shocking 
to  decency.  It  is  impossible  to  give  anything  like 
an  exact  report,  for  the  "Hold  on,  Judge,"  and 
"Wait  now,"  of  Guiteau  were  intermingled  with 
Judge  Porters  questions  and  utterances  of  "  No, 
but  answer  this,"  etc. 

Friday,  December  2d,  the  prisoner  was  again 
on  the  witness-stand,  seemingly  more  excitable 
than  ever.  Judge  Porter's  deliberateness  and 
pointedness  were  very  marked.  Guiteau  opened 
proceedings  by  saying  :  I  desire  to  say  to  you, 


300 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GLITEAU, 


Judge,  and  to  this  honorable  Court,  that  I  decline 
to  answer  any  more  questions  by  a  repetition  of 
what  we  have  already  had.  If  you  have  anything 
new  I  am  ready  to  answer,  otherwise  not,  unless 
by  special  direction  of  the  Court." 

The  cross-examination  was  then  continued  as 
follows : 

Q.  Was  it  one  of  your  purposes  in  killing  the 
President  to  create  a  demand  for  your  book?  A. 
One  of  the  objects  was  to  preach  the  Gospel  as 
set  forth  in  my  book. 

Q.  Have  you  read  a  good  deal  about  Napoleon  ? 
A.  No. 

Q,  When  you  wrote  "The  President's  nomina 
tion  was  an  act  of  God:  his  election  was  an  act  of 
God;  his  removal  was  an  act  of  God,"  did  you 
have  Napoleon's  bulletins  in  your  mind?  A.  Ap 
parently  gratified:  That  is  the  way  I  express  my 
self — sharp,  pointed,  sententious ;  if  you  want  to 
see  a  specimen  of  that  kind  of  style,  look  through 
my  book. 

Mr.  Porter:  I  think  you  have  remarkable  power 
of  brain,  and  whatever  your  brother-in-law  may 
think,  I  appreciate  your  ability. 

Prisoner,  highly  pleased :  I  thank  you  Judge, 
for  your  good  opinion. 

Mr.  Porter,  significantly:  I  think  that  is  the 
opinion  of  every  juror. 

Prisoner,  excitedly:  I  take  my  chance  before 
this  Court  and  the  jury  on  the  fact  that  the  Deity 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


301 


inspired  the  act.  I  am  not  a  fool,  and  the  Deity 
never  employed  a  fool  to  do  His  work.  He  put 
it  into  my  brain  and  heart  and  left  me  to  work  it 
out  in  my  own  way. 

Q.  You  believe  in  the  doctrines  of  predestina 
tion.  A.  Most  decidedly;  I  claim  that  I  am  a 
man  of  destiny ;  you  spoke  of  Napoleon,  he  thought 
he  was  a  man  of  destiny  though  he  had  different 
work  from  me:  I  am  a  man  of  destiny  as  much  as 
the  Saviour,  or  Paul,  or  Martin  Luther,  or  any  of 
those  religious  men. 

O.  And  your  destiny  was  to  kill  Garfield?  A. 
It  was  my  destiny  to  obey  the  Divine  will,  and  let 
Him  take  care  of  it;  I  put  up  my  life,  and  I  have 
not  been  hung  or  shot  yet. 

Mr.  Porter  went  on  to  cross-examine  the  pris 
oner,  with  the  object  of  showing  that  the  pretended 
inspiration  in  regard  to  a  theocratic  daily,  to  the 
book  called  " Truth,"  to  the  lecture  on  the  second 
coming  of  Christ,  etc.,  were  merely  borrowed  from 
the  ideas  of  Noyes  and  that  portions  of  the  book 
and  lecture  were  plagiarisms  from  the  book  called 
"The  Berean." 

Q.  Do  you  not  think  that  you  ever  had  a  de 
vilish  delusion?  A.  No,  sir;  I  do  not  have  devilish 
delusions;  Noyes  believed  in  devilish  delusions; 
the  devil  and  the  Almighty  are  fighting  it  out 
according  to  him;  I  believe  in  a  personal  devil; 
there  is  an  article  in  my  little  book  about  it;  it  is 
good  reading,  Judge. 
26 


302  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

Mr.  Porter :  I  have  read  it  with  a  good1  deal  of 
pleasure. 

Q.  Do  you  believe  the  devil  tempts  men  ?  A. 
Most  decidedly ;  he  tempts  them  to  do  evil,  and 
that  is  the  reason,  when  pressed  to  do  a  thing,  I 
first  question  whether  it  is  the  devil  or  the  Deity. 

Q.  And  that  was  so  when  the  question  came  up 
about  killing  the  President  ?  A.  For  two  or  three 
weeks  I  entertained  the  proposition,  praying  the 
Deity  not  to  let  me  make  any  mistake ;  and  the 
confirmation  of  the  fact  came  to  me  in  the  fact 
that  the  newspapers  were  denouncing  Garfield, 
and  I  saw  the  necessity  of  his  removal  for  the  good 
of  the  American  people ;  if  the  political  situation 
had  not  existed,  then  I  should  have  said  that  it  was 
the  inspiration  of  the  devil ;  but  the  political  situa 
tion  required  the  removal  of  the  President  for  the 
good  of  the  American  people,  and  that  is  the  way 
I  knew  it  was  the  Deity  and  not  the  devil. 

Q.  And  it  was  in  view  of  the  political  situation 
that  you  made  up  your  mind  to  murder — 

Prisoner,  interrupting  excitedly  :  Don't  use  that 
word  "  murder ;"  you  are  entirely  too  free  with 
the  word. 

Mr.  Porter:  Are  you  not  on  trial  for  murder? 

Prisoner :  So-  it  is  said ;  can't  you  use  the 
proper  word,  "removed  ?" 

Mr.  Porter :  I  can  use  the  word  "  remove,"  but 
it  is  as  repulsive  to  me  as  "murder"  is  to  you. 

Prisoner,   insultingly :    I  presume  you  have  a 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


big  fee  for  this,  Judge.     You  are  working  on  con 
ditions  I  see. 

Q.  (suddenly)  :  What  is  your  theory  of  your 
defense  ?  A.  I  stated  it  very  frequently  ;  if  you 
have  not  the  comprehension  to  see  it  by  this  time, 
I  will  not  attempt  to  enlighten  you. 

Q.  Your  defense  is  that  you  are  legally  insane 
and  not  in  fact  insane,  is  it  ?  A.  The  defense  is 
that  it  is  the  Deity's  act  and  not  mine. 

Q.  Are  you  insane  at  all  ?  A.  A  good  many 
people  think  I  am  badly  insane  ;  the  Oneida  peo 
ple  thought  so,  my  father  thought  so,  and  my  rel 
atives  thought  so,  and  still  think  so. 

Q.  Did  you  expect  at  the  time  you  shot  the 
President  to  be  tried  for  it  ?  A.  I  had  no  ex 
pectation  about  it  ;  my  only  thought  was  to  ex 
ecute  the  Divine  will  and  let  Him  take  care  of  me  ; 
I  would  not  have  been  deterred  from  the  act  if 
I  had  known  I  should  be  shot  in  five  minutes. 

The  examination  then  proceeded  upon  the  facts 
of  Guiteau's  watching  for  and  following  the  Presi 
dent,  which  developed  nothing  new.  In  many  of 
his  answers  the  prisoner  was  exceedingly  sarcastic 
and  cutting.  He  imitated  Mr.  Porter's  tones,  re 
peated  his  phrases,  and  grinned  and  sneered  at 
him  in  a  most  malicious  way. 

After  the  recess  Mr.  Porter  questioned  the 
prisoner  as  to  his  visit  to  the  jail  made  prior  to 
the  day  of  the  shooting.  The  prisoner  stated  that 
that  visit  had  been  made  after  the  inspiration  had 


304 

first  seized  him,  and  that  its  purpose  was  to  see 
where  he  would  ofo  under  human  law.  The  ex- 

o 

amination  was  then  addressed  to  the  occur 
rences  of  the  night  before  the  shooting,  when  the 
prisoner  followed  the  President  and  Mr.  Elaine. 
The  prisoner  stated  that  he  had  not  shot  that  night 
because  it  was  hot  and  sultry.  He  was  then  re 
torted  upon  by  Mr.  Porter  as  follows  : 

Q.  And  you  were  afraid  you  would  make  Mr. 
Elaine  sweat?  A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  Did  you  think  it  would  make  you  hotter  to 
pull  that  trigger  ?  inquired  Mr.  Porter,  raising  his 
arm  and  making  a  motion  as  if  shooting  with  a 
pistol. 

Prisoner,  contemptuously:  Oh,  don't  put  on 
so  much  style  with  the  trigger. 

Q.  Did  you  think  so  ?  A.  (imitating)  :  No,  sir ;  I 
did  not  think  so ;  it  was  extremely  hot,  and  I  did 
not  feel  like  it  at  that  particular  time. 

Q.  You  felt  like  it  when  you  did  shoot?  A. 
Under  extraordinary  resolution  and  pressure  I  did 
it ;  I  had  to  do  it. 

Q.  There  was  a  remonstrance  against  the  mur 
der  in  you  all  the  time  ?  A.  No,  sir  ;  I  never  had 
a  conception  of  it  as  a  murder ;  I  have  no  idea  of 
it  as  a  murder.  (Impatiently)  :  You  have  gone 
over  this  two  or  three  times. 

Q.  You  never  had  a  remonstrance  after  the  ist 
of  June?  A.  Never. 

Q.  In  your  own  conscience  ?     A.  In  my  own 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


conscience,  it  was  simply  a  question  of  opportu 
nity. 

Q.  Did  the  Deity  tell  you  that  ?  A.  The  Deity 
told  me  to  remove  him  whenever  an  opportunity 
occurred. 

Q.  That  was  His  language  ?  A.  In  substance 
it  was. 

Mr.  Porter  then  called  the  prisoner's  attention 
to  the  fact  that  he  had  made  arrangements  to  go 
to  the  jail,  and  inquired  why  he  had  done  so. 

The  prisoner  replied  that  he  was  afraid  of  be 
ing  mobbed  before  he  could  explain  his  views  to 
the  people.  They  would  say  that  he  was  a  disap 
pointed  office-seeker,  and  would  hang  him  up. 
That  was  the  only  possible  motive  they  could  con 
coct  for  the  act. 

Mr.  Porter  then  put  some  questions  as  to  the 
occurrence  of  the  i8th  of  June,  when  the  pris 
oner  refrained  from  shooting  the  President  on  ac 
count  of  Mrs  Garfield's  presence,  and  finally 
asked,  if  Mrs.  Garfield  had  been  with  the  Presi 
dent  on  the  2d  of  July,  would  you  have  shot  him  ? 
A.  No,  I  should  not  have  shot  him  in  her  pres 
ence.  I  did  not  know  what  the  effect  might  be  on 
her. 

Q.  Then  it  depended  entirely  on  your  will  ?  A. 
It  depended  on  whether  I  had  a  suitable  opportu 
nity. 

Mr.  Porter  inquired  why  he  would  not  have 
shot  in  Mrs.  Garfield's  presence. 
26* 


306  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

Prisoner:  If  your  head  is  so  thick  that  you  can't 
get  the  idea  in  I  won't  try  to  pound  it  in ;  don't 
try  to  ask  your  questions  in  that  mean,  sickly  sort 
of  way. 

Mr.  Porter  pressed  his  question,  whereupon  the 
prisoner  quietly  took  up  a  paper,  and  adjusting 
his  eye-glasses,  began  to  read,  paying  no  atten 
tion  whatever  to  the  counsel. 

Mr.  Porter :  What  are  you  reading  ? 

Prisoner,  without  raising  his  eyes :  I  am  glanc 
ing  over  the  New  York  Herald. 

Mr.  Porter:  Don't  you  think  that  the  time  of 
the  Court  and  jury  is  of  some  value  ? 

Prisoner :  Not  in  the  way  you  are  interrogating 
the  matter.  It  has  been  discussed  and  repeated 
over  and  over  again.  And  the  prisoner  settled 
himself  back  in  his  chair  to  read. 

Mr.  Porter:  I  suppose  you  have  no  objection  to 
answering  what  you  did  on  the  day  that  you  killed 
him? 

The  prisoner  then  gave  an  account  of  his  ac 
tions  on  the  morning  of  July  2.  He  had  slept  the 
previous  night  at  the  Riggs  House,  had  risen 
early  and  sat  in  Lafayette  Park  some  time  before 
breakfast.  After  breakfast  he  went  to  his  room 
and  put  his  revolver  in  his  pocket.  A  little  before 
9  o'clock  he  went  to  the  depot  and  had  his  boots 
blacked. 

Mr.  Porter:  Did  you  want  to  be  in  full  dress 
when  you  killed  him  ? 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


Prisoner,  drawling:  No.  I  didn't  want  to  be 
in  full  dress.  I  don't  want  to  be  interrupted. 

Q.  And  I  don't  want  to  be  interrupted.  A. 
Then  keep  quiet. 

The  prisoner  then  proceeded  with  his  story. 
Elaine  and  the  President  drove  up  in  a  single 
horse  carriage,  and  not  in  the  White  House  car 
riage,  which  showed  how  much  the  President  was 
under  Elaine's  influence  ;  Elaine  was  blowing  and 
blowing,  and  the  President  was  listening  ;  they 
were  on  the  most  intimate  relations  ;  Elaine  got 
out  of  one  side  of  the  carriage  and  Garfield  out 
of  the  other;  they  walked  into  the  depot  and 
passed  within  a  few  feet  of  the  prisoner,  who 
drew  his  weapon  and  fired  twice  and  hit  him  once. 

Q.  You  shot  him  in  the  back  ?  A.  I  did  not  fire 
at  any  particular  place. 

Q.  Did  you  not  fire  for  the.  hollow  of  his  back  ? 
A.  My  intention  was  to  shoot  him  in  the  back. 

O.  Did  you  think  that  if  he  got  two  balls  in  his 
back  it  would  remove  him?  A.  I  thought  so. 

Q.  And  you  intended  to  put  them  there  ?  A.  I 
did. 

Q.  (in  a  solemn  manner)  :  And  from  that  hour 
to  this  you  have  never  felt  regret  or  remorse  ?  A. 
I  regret  giving  pain  or  trouble  to  any  one,  but  I 
have  no  doubt  as  to  the  necessity  of  the  act  or 
the  divinity  of  the  act. 

Q.  You  have  never  hinted  at  any  remorse?  A. 
My  mind  is  a  perfect  blank  on  that  subject. 


308  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAL, 

Q.  Do  you  feel  any  more  remorse  about  ren 
dering  his  wife  a  widow  and  her  children  fatherless 
than  about  breaking  the  leg  of  that  puppy  dog  ? 
A.  I  have  no  conception  of  it  as  murder  or  kill 


ing. 


Q.  And  you  feel  no  remorse  ?  A.  (in  a  low 
and  almost  inaudible  tone)  :  Of  course  I  feel  re 
morse  so  far  as  my  personal  feelings  are  con 
cerned  ;  I  feel  remorse  as  much  as  any  man  and 
regret  the  necessity  of  the  act,  but,  raising  his 
voice 

Mr.  Porter :  The  cross-examination  is  closed. 

But,  continued  the  prisoner  excitedly,  my  duty 
to  the  Lord  and  the  American  people  overcame 
my  personal  feelings.  If  the  Lord  had  not  in 
spired  that  act  it  would  not  have  been  done. 

After  a  few  questions  from  Mr.  Scoville,  in  re 
direct  examination,  the  prisoner  was  conducted 
from  the  stand  looking  completely  worn  out. 

Dr.  Alexander  McNeil,  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  was 
next  examined,  and  then,  at  half-past  2  o'clock,  the 
court  adjourned. 

Proceedings  began  on  Saturday,  December  3rd, 
by  calling  to  the  stand  Colonel  J.  O.  P.  Burnside, 
disbursing  officer  of  the  Post  office  Department. 
He  testified  that  he  had  lived  at  Freeport,  knew 
the  prisoner's  family  and  that  the  prisoner's  mother 
was  an  invalid. 

Charles  C.  Allen,  of  Missouri,  testified  that  he 
lived  in  Freeport  in  1839  and  1840  and  knew  the 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


309 


Guiteau  family.  Mrs.  Guiteau  was  in  feeble 
health,  and  before  the  birth  of  the  prisoner  was 
for  some  time  confined  to  her  bed. 

Emory  A.  Storrs,  of  Chicago,  was  the  next  wit 
ness.  He  knew  Guiteau  in  Chicago  as  a  young 
lawyer.  He  saw  Guiteau  perhaps  a  dozen  times 
at  the  National  Republican  committee  rooms  dur 
ing  the  late  Presidential  canvass.  Witness  never 
saw  Guiteau  doing  anything  at  the  committee 
rooms  other  than  reading  the  papers.  Mr.  Storrs 
continued:  I  saw  him  in  April,  1881,  in  the  Riggs 
House  ;  I  observed  nothing  peculiar  in  his  dress  ; 
his  manner  might  be  called  one  of  exultation  ;  my 
recollection  is  that  he  told  me  he  was  going  to 
have  the  Austrian  Mission,  though  it  might  have 
been  the  Paris  Consulship.  I  do  not  think  he 
asked  me  to  see  Mr.  Elaine,  but  seeing  that  the 
conversation  was  tending  to  that  point,  and  as  I 
did  not  wish  to  see  Mr.  Elaine  on  that  business  or 
any  other  relative  to  appointment  to  office,  I 
rather  forestalled  what  he  had  on  his  mind  by  say 
ing  that  my  hostility  to  Mr.  Elaine  was  so  active 
politically  that  I  thought  that  any  advocacy  of  mine 
would  be  a  serious  damage  to  Guiteau;  that  I 
apprehended  that  if  Mr.  Elaine  knew  of  my  pro 
moting  his  claims  it  would  be  a  sure  way  of  defeat 
ing  him.  From  that  time  he  never  spoke  to  me. 
He  seemed  to  be  rather  discouraged. 

Q.  Did  you  form  any  opinion  as, to  his  mental 
condition  ?  A.  There  was  nothing  in  his  conver- 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


sation  about  the  headquarters  in  New  York  that 
would  lead  me  to  form  an  opinion.  Altogether  I 
had  formed  an  opinion  about  as  to  his  mental 
size. 

Q.  You  can  state  what  your  conclusion  was. 
A.  My  impression  was  that  he  had  an  illy-balanced 
judgment  and  an  illy-balanced  mind  and  did  not 
have  what  the  average  man  would  call  good  com 
mon  sense. 

Witness  was  asked  in  relation  to  the  political 
status  just  prior  to  the  shooting  of  President  Gar- 
field,  and  was  asked  if  there  were  not  elements  of 
discord  in  the  Republican  party  which  threatened 
to  disrupt  it  ?  The  reply  was  :  "  I  think  the  Re 
publican  party  a  pretty  difficult  one  to  disrupt,  and 
while  there  were  elements  of  discord  my  belief  in 
the  good  sense  of  the  rank  and  file  is  such  that  I 
think  it  would  have  held  together."  The  cross- 
examination  then  began,  as  follows  : 

Mr.  Davidge  :  Did  you  see  anything  in  his  con 
duct  to  indicate  any  want  of  capacity  to  determine 
between  right  and  wrong  ?  A.  No,  sir.  I  have 
never  seen  anything  in  Guiteau  which  led  me  to 
believe  that  he  could  not  distinguish  between  right 
and  wrong. 

Q.  Nothing  that  came  under  your  observation 
made  you  doubt  the  knowledge  and  appreciation 
of  the  prisoner  for  what  is  called  crime  ?  A.  I 
never  saw  anything  in  the  conduct  of  the  prisoner 
that  led  me  to  believe  that  he  could  not  distinguish 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  «  j  j 

and  did  not  know  the  difference  between  guilt  and 
innocence,  and  did  not  clearly  know  just  what 
crime  was. 

Edward  Daniels,  of  Virginia,  the  next  witness, 
had  met  Guiteau  at  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  rooms  in  this  city.  He  thought  the 
prisoner's  movements  and  conversation  somewhat 
peculiar. 

Senator  David  Davids  .next  took  the  stand. 
He  was  questioned  about  the  political  situation  at 
the  time  President  Garfield  was  shot. 

Q.  Was  there  not  such  a  breach  in  the  Republi 
can  party  that  it  bid  fair  to  destroy  it  ?  A.  The 
Republican  party  has  not  been  destroyed,  and  it 
has  had  a  good  many  breaches  in  it.  The  Re 
publican  party  is  an  extraordinary  organization. 
I  don't  believe  it  will  die  until  the  Democratic 
party  does. 

Mr.  Scoville:  From  your  knowledge  of  the 
parties,  do  you  not  think  the  success  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  would  endanger  the  Republic  ? 

Mr.  Davis  :  I  don't  think  the  success  of  any 
political  party  would  endanger  the  Republic. 

The  prosecution  had  no  questions  to  ask  and 
Senator  Davis,  with  an  air  of  blank  wonderment, 
said :  "  Can  I  be  excused  ?  I  told  the  officer  who 
came  for  me  that  I  never  saw  the  prisoner,  and 
knew  nothing  about  him,  except  what  I  had  read. 
I  couldn't,  for  the  life  of  me,  see  why  I  had  been 
summoned." 


3j  2  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GU1TEAU, 

Mr.  Scoville :  You  will  learn  the  reason,  Sena 
tor,  from  the  arguments. 

Edmund  A.  Bailey,  stenographer,  was  called, 
and  was  closely  questioned  in  regard  to  the  short 
hand  notes  he  had  taken  of  Guiteau's  conver 
sations  in  .the  jail  and  his  disposition  of  them. 
Guiteau  made  quite  a  noisy  demonstration,  and 
accused  the  witness  of  deceiving  him  by  pretend 
ing  to  be  a  Herald  representative.  Witness  pro 
nounced  Guiteau's  statement  in  the  matter  abso 
lutely  false.  "  You  sold  it  afterwards  to  the 
Herald"  Guiteau  said,  "and  I  suppose  you  got $500 
for  it."  Witness  explained  his  connection  with 
the  matter,  and  stated  that  the  Herald  had  paid 
him  $500  for  the  report. 

Guiteau,  excitedly :  I  told  you  so.  I'm  always 
right,  though  I  was  only  guessing  then. 

Guiteau  availed  himself  of  a  pause  to  announce 
that  he  desired  to  have  subpoenas  issued  for  Presi 
dent  Arthur,  General  Grant,  Governor  Jewell, 
Ex-Senators  Conkling  and  Platt,  Collector  Robert 
son,  Secretary  Elaine,  Ex-Senator  Dorsey,  James 
Gorden  Bennett,  Whitelaw  Reid,  George  Jones, 
Charles  A.  Dana,  William  Henry  Hurlburt,  George 
C.  Gorham  and  Stillson  Hutchins,  as  the  grava 
men  of  his  offence  depended  upon  showing  the 
state  of  political  feeling  in  the  country  in  April, 
May  and  June.  No  attention  was  paid  to  his 
modest  request.  The  Court  then  adjourned. 

On  Monday  morning,  December  5th,  Dr.  James 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


313 


G.  Kiernan  was  called  to  the  stand,  and  testified 
that  he  has  been  a  practicing  physician  for  eight 
years :  he  is  now  managing  editor  of  the  Chicago 
Medical  Review  and  lectures  on  mental  diseases 
in  the  Chicago  Medical  College ;  he  has  made  a 
study  of  mental  diseases  since  1874. 

Q.  Assuming  it  to  be  a  fact  that  there  was  a 
strong  hereditary  taint  of  insanity  in  the  blood  of 
the  prisoner  at  the  bar ;  also  at  about  the  age  of 
thirty-five  years  his  own  mind  was  so  much  de 
ranged  that  he  was  a  fit  subject  to  be  sent  to  an 
insane  asylum;  also  that  at  different  times  after  that 
date  during  the  next  succeeding  five  years  he 
manifested  such  decided  symptoms  of  insanity, 
without  simulation,  that  many  different  persons 
conversing  with  him  and  observing  his  conduct 
believed  him  to  be  insane;  also  that  in  or  about 
the  month  of  June,  1881,  at  or  about  the  expira 
tion  of  said  term  of  five  years  he  became  de 
mented  by  the  idea  that  he  was  inspired  of  God, 
to  remove  by  death  the  President  of  the  United 
States ;  also  that  he  acted  on  what  he  believed  to 
be  such  inspiration,  and  as  he  believed  to  be  in 
accordance  with  the  Divine  will  in  the  preparation 
for  and  in  the  accomplishment  of  such  a  purpose; 
also  that  he  committed  the  act  of  shooting  the 
President  under  what  he  believed  to  be  a  Divine 
command  which  he  was  not  at  liberty  to  disobey, 
and  which  belief  made  out  a  conviction  which  con 
trolled  his  conscience  and  overpowered  his  will  as 
27 


^4  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

to  that  act,  so  that  he  could  not  resist  the  mental 
pressure  upon  him;  also  that  immediatly  after  the 
shooting  he  appeared  calm  and  as  if  relieved  by  the 
performance  of  a  great  duty;  also  that  there  was 
no  other  adequate  motive  for  the  act  than  the  con 
viction  that  he  was  executing  the  Divine  will  for 
the  good  of  his  country — assuming  all  these  pro 
positions  to  be  true,  state,  whether  in  your  opinion, 
the  prisoner  was  sane  or  insane  at  the  time  of 
shooting  President  Garfield  ?  A.  Assuming  these 
propositions  to  be  true,  I  should  say  that  the  pris 
oner  was  insane. 

Q.  Have  you  any  doubt  about  it?     A.  No,  sir. 

On  cross-examination  it  appeared  that  the  wit 
ness  is  thirty  years  of  age  ;  does  not  believe  in 
a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments ;  is  a 
graduate  of  the  medical  department  of  the  Univer 
sity  of  New  York  City  ;  has  never  been  superin 
tendent  of  an  insane  asylum,  but  had  been  con 
nected  with  a  department  for  the  insane  on 
Ward's  Island;  had  been  assistant  physician  there 
at  one  time  and  practically  assistant  physician  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  time ;  was  apothecary  to  the 
asy!um  from  1875  to  1878;  was  dismissed  for  re 
fusing  to  sign  a  paper  in  a  case  of  violence  and 
for  discussing  a  medical  subject ;  Dr.  MacDonald 
was  then  superintendent  of  the  asylum. 

The  testimony  in  reference  to  some  of  the  pris 
oner's  relatives  having  been  summarized  the  wit 
ness  was  asked  whether,  in  his  judgment,  that 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  «  I  5 

evidence  made  out  a  strong  hereditary  taint  of  in 
sanity  in  the  blood  of  the  prisoner.  His  answer 
was:  Taking  all  that  into  consideration  I  should 
certainly  say  the  case  was  one  of  hereditay  in 
sanity. 

Q.  Are  you  a  disciple  of  the  school  of  moral  in 
sanity  ?  A.  Yes ,  I  believe  in  moral  insanity. 

Q.  Suppose  a  man  told  you  that  he  had  a  grand 
inspiration — say  to  slay  a  ruler — and  suppose  you 
watched  his  conduct  and  behavior,  and  it  turned 
out  to  be  that  of  a  vulgar  criminal  all  the  way 
through,  what  would  you  think  of  his  statement 
that  he  had  a  Divine  commission? 

Prisoner:  There  is  no  vulgar  criminal  in  this 
case;  please  leave  the  "vulgar"  out. 

Mr.  Scoville  objected  to  the  question,  because 
witness'  opinion  of  what  was  vulgar  might  differ 
from  the  counsel's. 

Prisoner:  Nothing  vulgar  about  this  case;  it  is 
all  high-toned. 

o 

Mr.  Davidge,  to  the  witness:  Assume  that  a 
man  says  to  you,  "I  am  commissioned  by  God  to 
slay  a  ruler,"  and  you  follow  the  conduct  and  be 
havior  and  operations  of  that  man  for  six  weeks 
and  find  them  to  be  those  of  an  ordinary  sane 
man  what  weight  would  you  give  to  his  declara 
tion? 

Witness:  If  I  am  to  assume  the  conditions  of 
things  which  you  state,  I  have  to  answer  I  would 
not  have  given  any  weight  to  his  declaration. 


^6  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

Various  other  points  were  dwelt  upon,  such  as 
the  physical  effects  of  insanity,  inequality  of  the 
two  sides  of  a  head,  the  proportion  of  insane  per 
sons  in  a  community,  the  witness  affirming  that 
it  was  his  supposition  that  one  in  every  five  indi 
viduals  sooner  or  later  become  inmates  of  in 
sane  asylums. 

After  a.  recess   Richard   T.  Hinton,  a  Washing- 

J  o 

ton  newspaper  man  was  called.  He  testified  to 
having  seen  the  prisoner  frequently  last  summer 
at  the  rooms  of  the  National  Republican  Com 
mittee  in  New  York  ;  he  had  also  read  his  speech 
"Garfield  against  Hancock,"  but  not  until  after 
the  assassination ;  he  thought  it  ill-jointed  and 
utterly  inconsequential.  At  the  Republican  head 
quarters  the  prisoner  was  a  laughing  stock  where 
he  was  not  an  annoyance. 

The  next  witness  was  Dr.  Charles  H.  Nicholls, 
of  New  York.  He  stated  that  he  is  superinten 
dent  of  the  Bloomingdale  Asylum  for  the  Insane  ; 
he  has  been  connected  with  insane  asylums  since 
1844,  and  had  during  all  that  time  made  a  study 
of  mental  diseases  ;  he  was  first  connected  with 
the  New  York  State  Lunatic  Asylum  at  Utica, 
then  with  the  Bloomingdale  Asylum,  then  with  the 
Government  Hospital  for  the  Insane  for  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia,  and  lastly  with  the  Blooming- 
dale  Asylum.  The  propositions  in  the  hypothetical 
question,  as  previously  given,  were  read  to  the 
witness,  and  he  was  asked  whether,  in  his  opinion, 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  3 1  7 

the  prisoner  was  sane  or  insane  when  he    shot 
President  Garfield. 

Witness:  Taking  that  hypothetical  case  to  be 
true,  I  should  think  the  person  described  in  it  was 
insane. 

The  next  witness  was  Mr.  Charles  Folsom,  of 
Boston,  who  testified  that  for  the  last  nine  years 
he  had  given  a  large  portion  of  his  time  to  the 
study  of  mental  diseases ;  he  was  in  the  McLean 
Asylum  for  about  a  year  and  a  half  from  1872  ;  he 
spent  a  year  in  Berlin  and  Vienna,  and  since  then 
has  been  in  Europe  three  times  ;  for  the  last  three 
years  he  has  been  instructor  in  mental  diseases  in 
Harvard  University.  The  proposition  laid  down 
in  the  hypothetical  question  was  read  to  the  wit 
ness,  and  he  was  asked :  "  Leaving  out  of  view 
your  own  opinions  or  anything  that  you  may  draw 
from  anywhere  else,  and  taking  the  facts  as  stated 
in  the  hypothetical  question  as  proved  to  be  true, 
what,  in  your  opinion,  was  the  mental  condition 
of  the  prisoner  at  the  time  of  his  shooting  Presi 
dent  Garfield  ?" 

Witness :  On  the  assumption  that  those  facts 
are  true,  in  the  same  way  as  I  use  language,  I 
should  say  he  was  unquestionably  insane. 

Mr.  Davidge:  That  opinion  is  based  on  the 
assumption  that  each  of  the  facts  stated  in  that 
paper  is  true  ?7 

Witness :  Yes ;  it  is  based  exactly  on  that 
paper. 

27* 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


The  next  witness  was  Dr.  Samuel  Worcester, 
of  Salem,  Mass.  He  stated  that  he  graduated  in 
1868,  but  was  engaged  in  practice  previous  to  that 
time  in  the  Insane  Asylum  in  Providence,  R.  I. 
He  had  made  a  special  study  of  mental  diseases 
for  the  last  fifteen  years.  The  hypothetical  ques 
tion  was  read  to  the  witness,  who  said  that  before 
answering  it  he  should  like  to  know  the  qualifica 
tions  which  the  prisoner's  friends  had  for  forming 
their  opinion  at  the  time  in  relation  to  his  insanity, 
and  also  what  interpretation  was  to  be  put  upon 
the  word  "inspiration/' 

Mr.  Scoville,  to  the  witness:  I  have  endeavored 
to  use  plain,  common  words  in  this  question. 

The  witness  insisted  on  a  precise  interpretation 
of  the  word  "inspiration,"  and  was  told  by  Mr. 
Scoville,  with  some  asperity  of  manner,  that  if  he 
did  not  understand  the  question  he  might  stand 
aside. 

The  next  witness  was  Dr.  William  W.  Golding, 
superintendent  of  the  Government  Hospital  for 
the  Insane,  of  Washington,  D.  C.,  and  connected 
with  insane  asylums  since  1875.  The  hypothetical 
question  was  read  to  the  witness  and  his  reply 
was:  In  my  opinion  he  was  unquestionably  insane. 

Mr.  Davidge:  You  do  not  undertake  to  pass 
upon  the  truth  or  falsity  of  those  propositions? 

Witness:  Not  at  all;  I  assume  them  as  if  they 
were  proven  to  be  true. 

The  next  witness  was  Dr.  James  H.  McBride, 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


319 


of  the  Insane  Asylum  of  Milwaukee,  and  who  has 
been  connected  with  insane  asylums  since  January, 
1874.  The  hypothetical  question  was  read  to  him 
and  his  answer  was:  Assuming  these  propositions 
to  be  all  true,  I  would  say  that  he  was  unquestion 
ably  insane. 

The  next  witness  was  Dr.  Walter  Channing,  of 
Brookline,  Mass.  He  had  made  a  special  study  of 
mental  diseases  for  eight  years;  he  had  been  con 
nected  with  the  asylum  for  insane  criminals  at 
Auburn,  N.  Y.,  and  with  the  State  Insane  Hospital 
at  Danvers,  Mass. ;  also  with  a  small  private  asy 
lum  at  Brookline,  Mass.  The  hypothetical  ques 
tion  was  read  to  the  witness  and  his  answer  was : 
Taking  all  those  propositions  to  be  the  exact  truth 
I  should  say  the  man  was  insane. 

The  next  witness  was  Dr.  Theodore  W.  Fisher, 
of  Boston.  He  had  made  a  specialty  of  mental 
diseases  for  twenty  years  and  had  been  connected 
with  the  Boston  Lunatic  Asylum  as  Assistant  Su 
perintendent  and  Superintendent.  The  hypotheti 
cal  question  was  read  to  the  witness,  and  his 
answer  was :  "  I  should  dislike  very  much  to  be 
confined  to  that  statement  of  facts,  but  if  I  am 
obliged  to  answer  that  question  I  should  say  he 


was  insane." 


The  remainder  of  the  day  was  spent  in  the 
reading  of  various  extracts  from  Guiteau's  book, 
and  in  sundry  explanations  and  announcements. 

Court  was  opened  promptly  on  Tuesday,  De- 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


cember  6th,  and  Charles  B.  Farwell,  a  member  of 
Congress,  from  Chicago,  was  the  first  witness  to 
take  the  stand.  He  stated  that  he  knew  the  pris 
oner  slightly  ;  he  came  to  witness'  office  in  Chi 
cago  about  six  years  ago,  said  his  name  was  Gui- 
teau,  and  handed  him  a  roll  of  papers  that  he  said 
were  editorials  for  a  newspaper  he  proposed  to  es 
tablish  ;  he  wanted  witness  to  lend  him  $200,000 
to  start  the  paper,  and  said  he  would  make  him 
President  of  the  United  States. 

Prisoner:  I  am  very  sorry  to  contradict  you, 
but  I  never  said  so. 

Q.  In  that  conversation  did  the  prisoner  appear 
to  be  addressing  you  sincerely  or  jokingly  ?  A.  I 
never  met  him  before.  He  said  he  would  call 
again,  and  he  did  so  a  few  days  after.  He  desired 
me  to  read  those  leading  editorials,  and  I  did  so. 

Prisoner:  That  part  is  correct,  but  that  about 
the  $200,000  is  not.  I  wanted  you  to  lend  me 
some  money  when  I  was  trying  to  establish  the 
Inter-  Ocean. 

Witness  :  I  examined  the  articles  he  had  brought 
and  when  he  came  back  I  said  that  I  did  not  care 
to  engage  in  the  enterprise;  I.  saw  him  twice  since 
that,  at  the  Arlington  Hotel,  in  March  last  ;  he 
came  in  with  a  paper  in  the  form  of  a  recommen 
dation,  unsigned,  and  asked  me  to  sign  my  name 
to  it  ;  it  was  asking  the  President  to  appoint  him 
to  the  Austrian  Mission  or  possibly  to  the  Paris 
consulship. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  *2l 

Q.  Did  you  have  any  other  interview  with  him  ? 
A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  Did  you  form  any  opinion  as  to  his  mental 
condition  ?  A.  I  never  thought  him  a  sane  man 
in  those  two  interviews. 

The  next  witness  was  Mr.  George  C.  Gorham, 
editor  of  the  Washington  National  Republican. 
He  stated  that  he  had  taken  an  interest  in  politics 
ever  since  he  had  been  able  to  read  the  newspa 
pers  ;  he  had  never  read  the  speech  of  the  pris 
oner  entitled  "  Garfield  against  Hancock."  The 
aim  was  to  get  the  judgment  of  this  gentleman 
upon  the  speech,  but  nothing  very  decided  was 
gained.  Considerable  discussion  followed  on  the 
question  of  Guiteau's  intimacy  with  leaders  of  the 
Republican  party,  and  on  the  propriety  of  sum 
moning  the  chief  men  of  them  as  witnesses.  After 
a  brief  recall  of  John  W.  Guiteau,  merely  to  fix  a 
date,  and  the  reading  of  posters,  handbills,  etc., 
on  the  prisoner's  book  and  lecture,  the  case  was 
closed  for  the  day,  and  Court  adjourned  at  noon. 

At  the  reassembling  on  Wednesday,  December 
7th,  the  prisoner  and  counsel  indulged  in  a  desul 
tory  discussion  about  the  desired  testimony  of 
President  Arthur. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

REBUTTING  TESTIMONY,   ETC. 

OTHER  witnesses  for  the  defense  not  be 
ing  present,  the  direct  testimony  of  this 
side  was  closed.  The  rebuttal  on  the  part 
of  the  government  began  it  work  by  calling  to 
the  stand  William  T.  Sherman,  General  of  the 
Army  of  the  United  States.  He  identified  the 
letter  of  the  prisoner,  which  was  handed  to  him 
at  five  minutes  to  twelve  A.  M.,  on  the  2d  day 
of  July  at  his  office  in  the  War  Department. 
The  witness  stated  that  the  four  companies 
of  artillery  which  then  constituted  the  garrison 
of  Washington  were  called  out  by  him  on  the 
first  intimation  to  him  that  the  President  had 
been  shot ;  the  shooting  of  the  President  under 
the  circumstances,  as  reported  to  him,  had  given 
raise  to  an  apprehension  that  it  was  part  and 
parcel  of  a  conspiracy  prevailing  throughout  the 
country  and  therefore  he  had  promptly  called 
out  the  troops. 

Q.  Did  you  make  an  examination  to  ascertain 
the  facts  ?  A.  I  did  ;  I  went  to  the  depot  and  saw 
the  Secretaries  of  State  and  War,  and  learned 
from  them  and  others  the  principal  facts ;  I  then 
sent  Colonel  Kidball  to  the  depot  with  troops  ;  I 


A SSA SSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GA  R FIELD,  *  2  3 

then  went   to    the  War  Department   and   there 
received  the  letter  which  I  hold 
in  my  hand. 

Q.  After  you  ascertained 
that  there  was  no  conspiracy 
did  the  army  still  remain  in 
charge  of  the  jail  ?  A.  The 
army  did  not  take  charge,  but 

J  .  .  ROBERT  T.    LINCOLN, 

assisted  the  civil  authorities  in        secretary  of  war. 
the  execution  of  their  duties ;  a  guard  was  sent 
to  the  jail  at  the  request  of  Major  Brock. 

Cross-examination  by  Mr.  Scoville.  Q.  You 
said  something  about  a  conspiracy?  A.  I  said  that 
when  I  first  learned  that  General  Garfield  had  been 
shot  down  in  the  depot  my  mind  jumped  to  the 
conclusions  that  it  must  have  other  connection  re 
sulting  from  a  conspiracy. 

Mr.  Scoville:  Did  you  have  any  other  founda 
tion  for  that  opinion  than  your  own  suspicion? 

Witness:  None. 

Mr.  Scoville:  Did  you  ever  have? 

Witness:  Never. 

Mr.  Scoville:  Did  you  investigate  the  subject? 

Witness:  Yes. 

Mr.  Scoville:  What  conclusion  did  you  arrive 
at? 

Witness :  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was 
the  act  of  one  man,  and  one  man  alone. 

Prisoner:  I'm  much  oblige  to  you,  General,  for 
sending  troops  to  my  protection  at  that  time ;  I 


24 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J    GUITEAU, 


should  not  have  been  here  if  it  had  not  been  for 
you  and  General  Crocker,  and  Major  Brock. 

The  next  witness  was  Edward  P.  Barton,  a  law 
yer  of  Freeport,  111.,  who  testified  to  having  known 
Luther  W.  Guiteau  very  well  from  1856  until  the 
day  of  his  death  ;  he  had  the  character  of  a  very 
reliable,  honest,  clear-headed,  straightforward  busi 
ness  man  ;  he  was  intelligent  to  an  unusual  de 
gree,  and  kept  posted  in  the  current  literature 
and  politics  of  the  day  ;  his  mind  was  a  peculiarly 
logical  one. 

o 

A.  T.  Greene,  a  collector  of  Freeport,  111.,  testi 
fied  his  belief  in  the  sanity  of  the  whole  Guiteau 
family,  and  the  cross-examination  failed  to  shake 
his  testimony. 

Gardner  W.  Tandy,  a  boot  and  shoe  dealer,  of 
Freeport,  111.,  also  testified  to  the  sanity  of  such 
members  of  the  Guiteau  family  as  he  had  any 
knowledge  of. 

o 

Benjamin  T.  Buckley,  a  practicing  physician  of 
Freeport,  111.,  was  the  next  witness.  For  some 
years  he  had  been  the  doctor  of  L.  W.  Guiteau's 
family  ;  had  always  regarded  Mr.  Guiteau  as  a 
man  of  fine  intellect,  with  a  clear,  logical  mind  ; 
he  was  a  public-spirited  man,  a  man  of  benevo 
lence,  always  interested  in  the  cause  of  education 
and  temperance  ;  witness  never  saw  the  slightest 
indication  of  mental  trouble  in  the  man. 

Smith  D.  Atkins,  editor  of  the  Freeport  Repub 
lican,  was  the  next  witness,  and  testified  as  to  the 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  -,  2  r 

sanity  of  the  Guiteau  family.  He  was  questioned 
as  to  the  character  of  Messrs.  North  and  Amer- 
ling,  witnesses  for  the  defense,  and  stated  that 
North  had  been  excluded  from  the  Methodist 
Church  ;for  lascivious  conduct,  and  that  Amerling 
was  such  a  man  as  Luther  W.  Guiteau  would  not 
associate  with. 

At  this  point  a  recess  was  taken.  The  first 
witness  after  the  recess  was  J.  S.  Cochran,  a  law 
yer,  of  Freeport,  111.  He  had  resided  there  since 
1858  ;  knew  Luther  W.  Guiteau  intimately  up  to 
the  time  of  his  death ;  never  saw  in  him  any  indi 
cation  of  mental  disturbance,  however  slight; 
knew  also  Abram  Guiteau  ;  never  saw  any  evi 
dence  of  insanity  in  him ;  never  had  any  reason 
to  suppose  that  any  member  of  the  family  was  of 
unsound  mind. 

George  W.  Oiler,  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  of 
Freeport,  III,  was  the  next 'witness,  and  testified  as 
to  the  sanity  of  the  Guiteaus.  He  was  then  ques 
tioned  by  the  District-Attorney  as  to  Mr.  Amer 
ling,  and  stated  that  he  had  received  a  letter  from 
that  gentleman  before  the  trial  asking  him  to  look 
up  the  eccentricities  of  the  Guiteau  family ;  he 
thought  that  the  letter  was  written  for  the  pur 
pose  of  getting  him  to  manufacture 

District-Attorney :  So  I  thought. 

Mr.  Scoville  started  up  angrily. 

District- Attorney :  That  is  irregular;  I  admit 
it. 

28 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


Mr.  Scoville:  Then  don't  do  it.  You  first  do  it 
and  then  admit  it. 

Anson  A.  Babcock,  a  farmer  of  Freeport  ,  111,, 
testified  that  he  had  lived  there  forty  years  ;  never 
saw  anything  in  L.  W.  Guiteau  or  his  family  indi 
cating  insanity. 

Mr.  David  H.  Sunderland,  State  Senator  from 
the  county  in  which  Freeport  is  situated,  and 
formerly  a  schoolmaster  of  the  prisoner,  then  took 
the  stand.  He  had  never  seen  any  symptoms  of 
insanity  in  the  Guiteau  family.  In  cross-exami 
nation  he  stated  that  when  the  prisoner  went  to 
school  to  him  he  was  six  years  old,  and  had  great 
difficulty  in  articulating  and  giving  the  right  pro 
nunciation  to  words  ;  L.  W.  Guiteau  had  taken 
great  interest  in  education,  and  his  name  was 
inscribed  upon  one  of  the  public  schools  in  Free- 
port. 

Horace  Tarbox,  capitalist,  of  Freeport,  testified 
to  the  sanity  of  the  Guiteaus,  and  stated  that  L. 
W.  Guiteau  was  the  third  smartest  man  in  the 
county.  He  mentioned  the  names  of  men  who 
were  smarter,  upon  which  the  prisoner  smilingly 
said  that  those  two  men  were  dead  and  so  the 
father  must  have  been  head  of  the  county. 

At  3  o'clock  the  Court  adjourned. 

On  Thursday,  December  8th,  Julia  M.  Wilson 
was  the  first  witness  called.  She  was  a  niece  of 
L.  W.  Guiteau  and  a  cousin  of  the  prisoner.  Her 
mother  was  Mrs.  Julia  Maynard,  who  died  in  1856, 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARF1ELD. 

and  in  whose  conduct  there  was  no  trace  of  flighti- 
ness 

Q.  Did  you  ever  hear  in  your  father's  family, 
during  your  mother's  life,  or  after  her  death,  that 
she  was  insane  ?  A.  No. 

Witness  then  gave  a  description  of  her  sister 
Abby's  character,  showing  her  to  be  imbecile 
rather  than  insane,  or,  as  witness  stated  it,  "  a 
childish  mind  in  an  old  body;"  in  none  of  the 
family  had  she  ever  seen  any  indication  of  in 
sanity. 

On  cross-examination  Mr.  Scoville  inquired 
whether  witness  had  any  prejudice  against  in 
sanity  being  shown  in  the  family.  A.  I  may  have, 
in  view  of  the  influence  on  children  and  others, 
not  on  myself;  if  I  thought  Iliad  nervous  children 
I  should  dislike  to  have  them  constantly  feeling 
that  they  were  subject  to  insanity. 

Witness  stated  that  her  sister  Abby  was  now  in 
the  State  Asylum  for  the  Insane. 

The  testimony  of  this  witness  provoked  quite 
an  animaetd  family  quarrel  in  which  the  lawyers 
also  joined. 

The  next  witness  was  Mr.  George  C.  Maynard, 
of  Washington  (the  same  gentleman  from  whom 
the  prisoner  borrowed  the  money  with  which  he 
bought  the  pistol  and  who  had  already  testified  in 
the  case).  He  is  a  cousin  to  the  last  witness  and 
knew  her  mother,  Mrs.  Maynard,  very  intimately 
for  years;  she  was  his  aunt ;  she  was  a  woman  of 


•228  TRIAL  OF' CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

intelligence  and  cultivation,  decidedly  strong  in 
character,  clear-headed  and  even-tempered  and  of 
very  superior  ability  ;  he  had  never  seen  in  her 
any  indication  of  mental  disturbance  ;  he  also  knew 
Abby  Maynard  as  a  bright,  intelligent,  good-tem 
pered  amiable  girl ;  she  was  timid  and  diffident, 
and  appeared  like  a  woman  of  thirty  with  the 
ways  of  a  girl  of  eighteen  ;  aside  from  that  she 
was  as  smart  as  any  of  them ;  he  also  knew  her 
father,  who  was  a  man  of  great  prominence  in 
Ann  Arbor ;  he  never  knew  any  indication  of 
weakness  of  mind  in  him. 

The  noon  recess  then  occurred.  After  the  re 
cess  Frank  Bartlett,  of  Chicago,  was  called  to  the 
stand.  He  knew  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Scoville,  and  had 
a  slight  acquaintance  with  the  prisoner. 

Prisoner :  You  met  me  at  Mr.  Scoville's  sum 
mer  resort  in  1876  ;  that's  all  you  know  about  me. 
It   cost   the    Government  $200   to  get  this  man 
down  to  testify  to  that.      That  is  the  way  you 
wasting  the  Government  money,  Corkhill 

The  witness  stated  that  he  knew  the  prisoner 
in  1878. 

Prisoner:  It  was  in  1878.    You're  right. 

Q.  Did  you  see  anything  in  his  conduct  that 
would  indicate  that  he  was  of  unsound  mind  ?  A. 
Nothing  whatever. 

Prisoner :  What  has  that  to  do  with  the  condi 
tion  of  my  mind  ?  From  the  middle  of  May  till 
the  ist  of  July  I  had  a  chance  to  go  crazy  a  hun- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


dred  times.  [Laughter].  That  shows  the  very 
stupid  work  on  the  part  of  the  prosecution.  If 
you  had  to  pay  the  money,  Corkhill,  you  wouldn't 
do  this,  but  the  taxpayers  have  got  to  pay  it. 

Florence  L.  Bartlett,  the  wife  of  the  last  wit 
ness,  then  took  the  stand  and  was  questioned  as 
to  the  incident  of  Guiteau's  throwing  a  dog  down 
stairs.  The  testimony  was  unimportant  and  the 
spectators  seemed  to  agree  with  the  witness  when 
she  said  her  opinion  was  that  "  it  was  a  good  deal 
of  talk  about  a  very  small  matter." 

The  cross-examination  failed  to  shake  the  wit 
ness'  testimony,  and  the  prisoner  interjected  the 
remark,  "  We've  had  enough  of  this  dog  busi 
ness." 

Howard  C.  Dunham,  acting  secretary  of  the 
American  Peace  Society,  of  Boston,  then  took  the 
stand.  The  testimony  was  upon  minor  points  and 
was  accompanied  with  considerable  discussion  by 
the  prisoner  and  counsel. 

The  next  witness  was  John  Palmer,  proprietor 
of  the  Circular  Street  House,  Saratoga  Springs. 
The  substance  of  his  testimony  was  that  the  pris 
oner  spent  a  week  at  his  house  in  July,  1880,  and 
left  without  paying  his  bill. 

Mr.  Scoville  then  read  to  the  Court  the  answers 
of  President  Arthur  to  the  interrogatories  sent 
him.  To  the  first  and  second  questions  whether 
he  knew  the  prisoner,  and  how  often  he  had  seen 
him,  the  President  replied  that  he  knows  him,  that 
28* 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU. 


he  has  seen  him  at  least  ten  times,  and  possibly 
twenty  times.  To  the  question  as  to  whether  he 
had  ever  conversed  with  him  he  replied,  "  Never, 
excepting  to  return  the  ordinary  salutations  of  the 
day,  and  once  or  twice  in  answer  to  his  request  to 
be  employed  in  the  campaign  as  a  speaker  by  the 
Republican  State  Committee,  of  which  I  was  chair 
man."  To  the  question  what  political  services  the 
prisoner  had  rendered  to  the  Republican  party 
during  the  last  Presidential  campaign,  the  answer 
is,  "  None  that  I  know  of."  The  fifth  question 
was,  "  Whether  there  was  anything  in  the  prison 
er's  relations  to  himself,  or  to  General  Grant,  or 
Senator  Conkling  or  any  other  leader  of  the  Re 
publican  party,  socially  or  politically,  to  furnish 
him  with  any  ground  for  supposing  that  he  would 
receive  any  political  preferment."  The  answer  is 
"  No." 

Prisoner  :  That  is  a  matter  of  opinion. 

The  last  question  was  :  "Did  you  ever  give  him 
any  reason  to  think  he  could  have  any  political  or 
personal  influence  with  you  ?"  The  answer  is,  "  I 
never  did." 

Prisoner:  He  never  had  occasion  to. 

The  President  adds  to  his  answers  the  follow 
ing:  I  have  been  requested  by  counsel  for  the 
defense  to  produce  a  letter  written  by  the  prisoner 
since  his  indictment.  That  letter  was  received  by 
me  in  October  last,  and  was  not  preserved.  I  do 
not  recollect  its  contents  particularly,  excepting 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  «  *  l 

that  it  contained  some  claim  of  his  having  rendered 
some  important  services  to  the  Republican  party 
during  the  Presidential  campaign,  and  an  appeal 
for  the  postponement  of  his  trial  to  give  him  time 
to  prepare  for  the  defense. 

Prisoner :  That  is  all  that  there  was  to  it. 

The  next  witness  was  Rev.  R.  S.  MacArthur,  pas 
tor  of  the  Calvary  Baptist  Church  of  New  York. 
As  soon  as  he  was  sworn  the  prisoner  remarked : 
"  I  know  Dr.  MacArthur  very  well.     He  is  a  nice, 
fine  fellow ;  very  high-toned  in  every  way.    I  owe 
him  $95."    In  answer  to  the  question  when,  where 
and  under  what  circumstances  he  had  known  the 
prisoner,  the  witness  said :  In  the  latter  part  of 
June  or  the  early  part  of  July,  1872,  the  prisoner 
introduced  himself  and  his  wife  to  me  at  the  close 
of  one  of  the  Sunday  morning  services ;  he  pre< 
sented  at  the   same  time  a  letter  of  dismission 
from    the    First   Baptist   Church,  of   Chicago,  of 
which  Rev.  W.  W.  Evarts  was  then  pastor ;  this 
letter  dismissed  him  and  his  wife  honorably  from 
that  church  and   recommended  them  heartily  to 
the  watchful  care  and  fellowship  of  the  Calvary 
Baptist  Church,  of  which  I  was  then  and  am  now 
pastor ;  with  the  letter  was  also  his  business-card, 
Charles  J.  Guiteau,  Attorney  and  Counsellor  at 
Law,  at  such  a  number,  Broadway ;  he  stated  to 
me  at  that  time  that  in   Chicago  he   had  had  a 
lucrative  practice  of  law,  but  that  owing  to  the 
disasters  following  the  fire  his  practice  had  entirely 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


or  in  good  part  gone,  and  that  now  he  and  his 
wife  had  come  to  New  York  to  start  life  afresh. 
I  received  him  with  cordiality. 

At  our  first  regular  business-meeting,  in  Sep 
tember,  1872,  the  prisoner  and  his  wife  were 
received  into  the  fellowship  of  our  church;  the 
wife  came  to  me  one  Saturday,  late  in  July  or 
early  in  August,  with  a  letter  from  her  husband 
stating  that  he  was  in  great  distress  for  money; 
the  money  was  most  urgently  asked  for  by  his 
wife  ;  I  gave  the  money  ;  that  fall  we  were  enter 
ing  on  a  political  campaign  ;  during  the  early  part 
of  the  fall  the  prisoner  used  to  attend  our  meet 
ings  and  to  participate  in  our  prayers  and  remarks  ; 
he  was  always  welcome  ;  during  this  campaign  he 
was  not  seen  at  cur  meetings  so  often,  and  the 
reason  assigned  by  him  was  (using  the  phrase 
which  he  used)  that  he  had  gone  to  some  degree 
into  politics  and  that  he  expected  an  office  as  the 
result  of  these  political  excitements. 

During  the  year  1872  and  the  early  part  of  1873 
we  saw  him  at  the  meetings  less  frequently  ;  now 
and  then  there  were  remarks  made  in  newspapers 
reflecting  somewhat  on  his  character  in  the  man 
agement  of  some  business  affairs,  but  in  conver 
sation  with  me  he  gave  what  he  deemed  a  satis 
factory  explanation,  and  there  seemed  to  be  no 
sure  ground  on  which  proceedings  of  discipline 
could  be  instituted  against  him. 

I   remember  that  he  was"  arrested  and  thrown 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


333 


into  Jefferson  Market  jail  because  of  some  diffi 
culty  with  a  hotel,  and  that  from  the  jail  he  wrote 
to  me,  saying  that  I  was  the  only  one  to  whom  he 
could  apply  and  that  he  was  absolutely  helpless  • 
I  put  myself  out  very  considerably  to  go  to  the 
jail  and  see  him ;  I  saw  the  Judge,  and  the  Judge 
kindly  offered  to  attach  importance  to  any  sug 
gestion  that  I  might  make  to  him  ;  I  informed 
him,  however,  that  I  wished  the  law  to  take  its 
course  ;  in  the  meantime  it  came  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  officers  of  the  church  that  he  had  been  guilty 
of  gross  immorality. 

Prisoner :  That  was  the  time  that  I  committed 
adultery  so  that  I  might  get  a  divorce.  That  was 
all  there  was  in  it.  I  was  not  going  to  live  all  my 
life  with  a  woman  I  did  not  like.  I  had  no  busi 
ness  to  marry  her  at  all. 

Witness,  ignoring  the  interruption:  And  about 
the  1 3th  of  April,  1875,  ne  was  summoned  to 
appear  before  the  Advisory  Committee  to  answer 
to  the  charge  of  gross  immorality;  I  was  chair 
man  of  that  committee;  there  were  three  counts 
in  the  charge ;  the  first  was  that  he  took  money 
which  his  wife  earned  by  working  in  a  hotel  in  the 
country  and  which  was  remitted  to  him  to  assist 
in  supporting  him. 

Prisoner,  interrupting :  That  is  absolutely  false, 
Doctor.  I  never  heard  the  story  before. 

Witness,  still  ignoring  the  interruption :  And 
spent  it  in  improper  relations  with  other  women. 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


Prisoner,  with  excitement:  That  is  absolutely 
false.  If  my  wife  told  you  that,  she  told  a  lie. 

Witness,  continuing  his  narrative  :  The  second 
and  third  counts  charged  that  he  had  been  guilty, 
by  frequent  acts,  of  violation  of  his  marriage 
vows. 

Prisoner,  again  breaking  in  :  I  only  married  that 
woman  on  ten  hours'  notice,  and  that  is  reason 
enough  why  I  could  not  live  with  her. 

Witness:  Those  charges  were  recited  to  the 
prisoner  by  myself  in  the  presence  of  the  com 
mittee. 

Prisoner:  That  is  erroneous.  I  beg  to  differ 
from  you. 

Witness:  I  recited  those  charges  to  the  prisoner, 
and  he  acknowledged  the  truth  of  every  one  of 
them. 

Prisoner,  in  spite  of  all  Mr.  Scoville's  efforts  to 
repress  him  :  I  remember  this.  I  take  back  my 
contradiction  to  what  the  doctor  said,  because  upon 
thinking  it  over  I  find  it  is  correct.  The  men  on 
that  committee  said  that  they  had  been  in  the  same 
boat  themselves  and  for  that  reason  they  felt 
sympathetic.  They  thought  that  if  a  man  had 
been  unfortunately  married  he  had  a  right  to  get 
out  of  it. 

The  witness  proceeded  to  tell  of  Guiteau's  final 
exclusion  from  the  church.  A  decided  sensation 
was  made  when  the  District-Attorney  said  :  We 
present  this  testimony  because  we  want  to  show 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


that   what   the  defense  calls  insanity  is    nothing 
more  than  devilish  depravity. 

The  District-Attorney,  to  the  witness  :  From 
your  observation  and  from  your  conversations 
with  him  did  you  ever  consider  him  in  any  sense 
an  insane  man  ? 

Witness  :  It  never  occurred  to  me  for  a  moment 
that  he  was  other  than  sane. 

After  cross-examination,  in  which  the  prisoner 
was  constantly  interrupting  proceedings,  the  Court 
adjourned. 

Dr.  MacArthur  resumed  his  testimony  on  Fri 
day,  December  gth.  The  re-direct  examination 
was  conducted  by  the  District-Attorney,  but  de 
veloped  nothing  new. 

The  next  witness  was  W.  S.  Caldwell,  of  Free- 
port,  Illinois,  a  physician.  He  attended  the  pris 
oner's  father  in  his  last  illness  and  noticed  in  him 
no  indications  of  unsoundness  of  mind. 

The  next  witness  was  George  W.  Plummer,  of 
Chicago,  lawyer.  As  soon  as  he  was  called  the 
prisoner  blurted  out  : 

"  I  owe  Plummer  $20  and  it  will  cost  the  Gov 
ernment  $100  to  prove  that  fact."  To  the  Dis 
trict-Attorney  :  "  How  many  more  of  these  money- 
men  have  you  got,  Colonel  ?  Public  attention 
should  be  called  to  the  way  you  are  spending  the 
public  money.  You  will  make  this  trial  cost 
$200,000." 

The  witness  stated  that  the  prisoner  had  ob- 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


tained  desk-room  in  his  office  in.  Chicago  and  had 
got  out  some  business  cards,  on  which  he  de 
scribed  himself  as  "  Late  of  New  York  City." 

The  witness  went  on  to  speak  of  the  Inter- 
Ocean  negotiations,  which  the  witness  did  not 

c> 

think  at  all  irrational,  considering  the  first-class 
men  whom  the  prisoner  mentioned  as  backers. 

Prisoner:  I  had  the  brains  and  they  had  the 
money. 

The  next  witness  was  Granville  B.  Hawes,  one 
of  the  Judges  of  the  Marine  Court  of  New  York. 
He  testified  to  the  fact  that  the  prisoner  in  1874 
occupied  a  desk  in  the  outer  room  of  his  office, 
and  said  that  he  had  never  noticed  anything  in 
him  indicating  that  he  was  of  unsound  mind. 

o 

The  next  witness  was  Mr.  Stephen  English,  of 
New  York,  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Insurance 
Times.  He  detailed  all  the  circumstances  con 
nected  with  the  prisoner  procuring  bail  for  him 
while  he  was  in  Ludlow  Street  jail  on  a  charge  of 
libel.  He  was  interrupted  at  every  step  of  his 
narrative  by  the  prisoner  ejaculating  :  "  That  is 
not  true  :"  "  Confine  yourself  to  the  facts,  Eng 
lish  ;"  "  He  got  me  arrested  by  actual  perjury  ;" 
"  That  is  absolutely  false  ;"  "  I  can  convince  you 
that  you  are  lying  ;"  "  There  is  not  an  insurance 
president  in  New  York  who  does  not  know  that 
you  are  a  first-class  fraud;"  "That  is  the  biggest 
lie  you  have  spoken;"  "Why,  I  would  not  spit 
upon  you  in  the  street;"  "You  old  scoundrel;" 


OF  PRESIDENT  GARF1ELD. 


"The  insurance  presidents  of  New  York  would 
not  believe  you  under  oath;"  "You're  an  old 
fraud." 

In  reply  to  the  question  whether  he  had  any 
doubt  as  to  the  sanity  of  the  prisoner,  the  witness 
said:  Never;  on  the  contrary,  he  appeared  to  be 
a  man  of  remarkable  keenness  of  intellect,  be 
cause  he  completely  outwitted  me.  [Laughter]. 

Prisoner;  He  had  a  half  dozen  lawyers  trying 
to  get  him  out  and  they  failed.  I  was  the  only 
man  who  dragged  him  out  of  that  hole. 

Warren  G.  Brown,  attorney-at-law,  of  New 
York,  was  counsel  for  Mrs.  Guiteau  in  obtaining 
her  divorce  from  the  prisoner.  Witness  saw  and 
talked  with  the  prisoner  several  times  during  the 
four  months  that  the  case  was  pending,  and  never 
saw  anything  to  indicate  that  the  prisoner  was  not 
as  rational  as  any  other  man. 

Guiteau,  excitedly:  I  want  to  know,  Corkhill, 
what  all  this  kind  of  evidence  has  got  to  do  with 
the  real  issue.  Who  fired  the  shot  that  killed 
Garfield,  the  Deity  or  I?  I  think  it  devilish  mean 
to  rake  up  my  character  in  all  its  details. 

Charles  H.  Wehle,  a  lawyer  of  New  York  City, 
was  then  called  -to  the  stand.  He  was  acquainted 
with  the  prisoner  and  had  met  him  in  1873.  Saw 
him  twice,  once  in  prisoner's  office,  once  in  his 
own.  On  those  occasions  the  purpose  was  to  get 
money  from  him  which  he  had  collected  from  wit 
ness'  clients  and  not.paid  over. 
29 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUI  TEAL, 


Witness  presented  a  book,  showing  the  contract 
which  he  had  with  Guiteau  to  collect  money,  and 
read  a  number  of  claims  which  were  to  be  col 
lected  for  Mr.  Emil  Haas,  one  of  witness'  clients. 

When  he  concluded  the  prisoner  declared  that 
he  would  not  give  ten  cents  a  bushel  for  all  the 
claims,  and  demanded  to  know  the  amount  of 
claims  which  he  had  collected. 

Witness  :  The    items    collected    amounted    to 

$585-12.      - 

District-  Attorney  :  From  those  interviews  with 

him,  was  there  anything  in  his  actions  or  conver 
sations  to  indicate  tha  the  was  of  unsound  mind  ? 

Witness:  Nothing.  On  the  contrary,  I  con 
sidered  him  very  sharp  and  keen,  and  as  rational 
as  you  or  I. 

Prisoner  :  That  was  eight  years  ago.  It  has  a 
great  deal  to  do  with  this  case,  hasn't  it,  Colonel 
(in  an  ironical  tone  to  the  District-Attorney)  ? 
You  produce  those  notes  (he  shouted  wildly  to  the 
witness),  or  else  get  off  that  stand  a  disgraced 
man.  If  you  came  to  slobber  .  over  me  you  must 
produce  those  notes  or  you  show  yourself  a  liar. 

On  the  cross-examination,  Mr.  Wehle  was 
asked:  Did  you  ever  have  any  conversation  with 
the  prisoner  on  the  subject  of  religion  ?  A.  No.. 

"No,  "echoed  the  prisoner,  contemptously  ;  "he 
is  a  Jew,  and  a  dirty  one  at  that." 

The  next  witness  was  Benjamin  Harrison, 
United  States  Senator  from  Indiana.  He  testified 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


339 


that  he  had  met  the  prisoner  after  the  inaugura 
tion  in  Washington,  Guiteau  wanted  assistance  in 
his  application  for  office.  The  witness  saw  nothing 
that  raised  the  question  of  insanity. 

D.  McLean  Shaw,  a  New  York  lawyer,  was 
called.  The  prisoner  rented  an  office-room  from 
him  at  59  Liberty  Street,  in  1872.  Prisoner  had 
declared  his  purpose  to  become  notorious,  even  if 
he  imitated  Wilkes  Booth.  Witness  never  had 
any  doubt  of  Guiteau's  sanity.  The  prisoner  was 
particularly  abusive  of  this  witness. 

Mr.  Scoville,  angrily:  I  would  like  an  oppor 
tunity  to  cross-examine  the  witness. 

Prisoner:  I  can  examine  him  in  two  or  three 
words  better  than  you  in  a  half  an  hour. 

Q.  Who  was  the  first  person  to  whom  you 
related  this  conversation?  A.  I  don't  recollect 
stating  it  to  anybody  until  after  the  assassination. 

Prisoner:  You  kept  it  to  yourself.  That  shows 
that  you  are  a  liar,  you  whelp,  you. 

Q.  Whom  did  you  first  inform  of  it?  A.  Some 
of  my  friends  and  associates. 

Prisoner:  I  just  want  to  state  about  Shaw  that 
I  went  from  his  office  to  Judge  Hawes'  office.  I 
called  round  to  see  Shaw  one  day  and  he  said: 
"  You  have  to  thank  me  for  that,"  as  much  as  to 
say  that  I  got  into  Judge  Hawes'  office  on  his  re 
commendation. 

Writh  the  consent  of  the  District- Attorney,  Mr. 
Scoville  called  to  the  stand  Judge  Granville  B. 


340 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


Hawes,  who  had  been  occupying  a  seat  beside 
Judge  Cox.  He  did  not  recollect  whether  the 
prisoner  had  come  into  his  office  on  Mr.  Shaw's 
recommendation  or  not. 

The  Court  then  adjourned  until  1 1  o'clock, 
Monday. 

On  Monday,  December  i2th,  Mr.  Scoville  called 
to  the  stand,  with  the  consent  of  the  prosecution, 
Dr.  E.  C.  Spitzka,  of  New  York  City.  He  stated 
that  he  had  followed  the  medical  profession  for 
eight  years,  and  for  six  of  those  he  had  made  a 
specialty  of  nervous  and  mental  diseases  ;  he  had 
studied  in  Vienna  and  this  country ;  he  had  been 
called  as  an  expert  in  insanity  cases  twenty-five  or 
twenty-six  times  ;  he  had  written  articles  upon  the 
subject  and  had  received  the  international  competi 
tive  prize  in  1878  for  an  essay  on  insanity.  Pie 
was  questioned  fully  as  to  an  examination  made 
the  previous  day  to  determine  whether  Guiteau 
was  insane.  He  pronounced  the  prisoner  unques 
tionably  insane,  and  expressed  the  conviction  that 
he  had  been  more  or  less  so  all  through  his  life. 

Q.  State  the  particular  phase  or  character  of 
the  insanity  in  this  case,  as  observed  by  you.  A. 
That  would  be  very  difficult  to  render  clear  to  a 
jury  not  composed  of  experts  ;  I  simply  say  that 
the  marked  feature  of  this  man's  insanity  is  a  ten 
dency  to  delusive  or  insane  opinion  and  to  the 
creation  of  morbid  and  fantastical  projects  ;  there 
is  a  marked  element  of  imbecility  of  judgment, 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


and,  while  I  had  no  other  evidence  than  the  ex 
pression  of  his  face  for  this,  I  have  no  doubt  that 
he  is  a  moral  imbecile,  or,  rather,  a  moral  mon 
strosity. 

The  cross-examination  dealt  with  the  definition 
of  insanity,  degrees  of  insanity,  etc. 

In  reply  to  further  questions,  the  witness  said 
that  he  had  never  had  charge  of  an  insane  asylum, 
he  had  never  been  professor  in  a  medical 
school,  but  was  Professor  of  Comparative  Anat 
omy  at  the  Columbia  Veterinary  College. 

Q.  What  sort  of  a  college  is  that  ?  A.  A  col 
lege  where  physicians  are  instructed  in  the  art  of 
treating  the  lower  animals. 

o 

O.  Horse,  mainly,  I  suppose?  A.  Yes;  the 
branch  which  I  treat  is  the  branch  pursued  by 
such  men  as  Thomas  Huxley,  Baron  Huguet, 
Haeckel  and  others  of  our  most  eminent  scientists. 
I  have  no  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  it. 

Mr.  Davidge  :  All  these  doctors,  and  the  doc 
tors  belonging  to  this  college  are  called  "  horse 
doctors,"  are  they  not  ? 

Witness  :  I  never  have  treated  any  lower  ani 
mal  except  the  ass,  and  that  animal  had  two  legs 
[laughter],  I  therefore  cannot  consider  myself  a 
veterinary  surgeon. 

Q.  But  you  are  a  veterinary  surgeon,  are  you 
not  ?  A.  In  the  sense  that  I  treat  asses  who  ask 
me  stupid  questions  I  am.  [Laughter.] 

After  some  questioning  about  his  relation  to  the 

2Q* 


342 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  j.  GUITEAU, 


pending  case,  the  witness  gave  very  fully  his  rea 
sons  for  thinking  Guiteau  insane. 

The  afternoon  session  was  opened  as  usual  by 
the  prisoner,  who,  thumping  the  table  with  his  fist, 
cried :  "  There  are  a  good  many  poodle  dogs  in 
the  newspaper  business,  and  I  want  to  express 
my  utter  contempt  for  some  of  those  poodle  dogs. 
I  am  glad  to  notice  that  the  high-toned,  conscien 
tious  papers  are  saying  almost  with  one  voice  that 
it  would  be  a  stain  on  the  American  name  for  the 
jury  to  hang  a  man  in  my  condition  on  the  2cl  of 
July,  when  I  was  precipitated  upon  the  President." 

Hardly  had  he  ceased  speaking,  when  a  voice 
from  the  most  crowded  corner  of  the  court-room 
exclaimed,  "  Shoot  him  now  !"  The  prisoner  glared 
around  in  a  frightened  manner,  while  there  was  a 

o 

good  deal  of  suppressed  commotion  among  the 
spectators.  The  Deputy  Marshal  endeavored  to 
discover  the  offender,  but  was  unsuccessful. 

The  cross-examination  proceeded  upon  the 
shape  of  the  prisoner's  head  and  other  congenital 
evidences  of  insanity. 

Q.  You  base  your  opinion  as  to  his  moral  mon 
strosity  on  the  shape  of  his  head  ?  A.  Only  in 
cidentally;  I  base  it  upon  his  expression  taken  in 
connection  with  the  abnormal  shape  of  his  head ; 
it  proves  the  congenital  character  of  the  trouble ; 
if  the  man  only  had  the  mean  face  he  has,  I  should 
say  he  might  be  a  depraved  man,  but  when  I  add 
to  that  the  defective  shape  of  his  skull  I  am 


ASS  A  SSI  A7  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


strongly  of  the  belief  —  as  strongly  as  science  per 
mits  us  to  come  to  a  conclusion  —  that  he  is  a  con 
genital  monstrosity. 

Q.  You  refer  to  the  shape  of  the  head  and  the 
inequality  of  the  facial  muscles  and  the  deviation 
of  the  tongue  to  the  left,  as  indicating  that  the 
lack  of  moral  sense  is  congenital  and  not  ac- 

o 

quired  ?  A.  Yes  ;  among  the  other  physical  evi 
dences  I  noticed  was  a  defect  in  his  speech. 

Q.  What  do  you  mean  by  an  unequal  facial  de 
velopment  ?  A.  On  one  side  the  facial  folds, 
when  he  was  laughing,  rose  higher  than  on  the 
other. 

O.  His  smile  was  a  one-sided  smile  ?  A.  A 
lop-sided  smile. 

Q.  In  your  practice  have  you  met  with  many 
lop-sicled  smiles  ?  A.  It  is  the  characteristic  of 
those  insane  whom  we  term  "  primary  monoma 
niacs." 

Q.  Taken  alone  what  would  it  amount  to  ?  A. 
Absolutely  nothing. 

Prisoner  :  Dr.  Spitzka  is  one  of  the  most  scien 
tific  men  in  America.  He  studied  in  all  the  high- 
toned  colleges  in  Europe,  and  he  is  not  to  come 
here  and  be  insulted  by  this  little  bit  of  a  scamp. 
To  the  District-Attorney:  Why,  Corkhill,  he 
would  not  even  condescend  to  spit  on  you. 

District-  Attorney  :  I  understand  that  this  wit 
ness,  over  a  month  ago,  wrote  an  opinion  upon 
the  subject  of  this  prisoner's  insanity,  and  criti- 


344  TRIAL  OF  Off  A  RLE  S  J.  GUITEAV, 

cised  the  whole  case.     I  want  to  show  that  he  did 
not  come  here  with  an  unformed  opinion. 

Witness :  Nor  did  I  claim  to  do  so. 

Court:  There  is  nothing  wronof  in  that. 

o  o 

On  being  questioned  further  the  witness  ad 
mitted  all  that  was  asked  about  this  printed  article 
to  which  the  District- Attorney  replied ; 

So  that  when  you  came  into  this  case  you  had 
not  only  expressed  your  opinion  as  to  the  sanity 
or  insanity  of  the  prisoner,  but  you  had  criticised 
the  law  officer  in  charge  of  the  case,  and  said 
that  it  would  be  disgraceful  to  hang  the  prisoner, 
and  that  the  case  ought  never  to  go  to  a  jury. 
Now  do  you  pretend  to  say  that  you  came  here 
an  unbiassed  witness? 

Witness,  indignantly :  I  mean  to  say  that  I  am 
an  honest,  scientific,  unprejudiced  witness,  and  if 
you  will  say — restraining  himself.  I  will  not  go 
any  further. 

On  Tuesday,  December  I3th,  Dr.  Spitzka  re 
sumed  the  stand,  and  the  District-Attorney  con 
ducted  the  cross-examination.  It  elicited  nothing 
new,  and  a  re-direct  examination  followed,  which 
was  conspicuous  chiefly  for  the  personalities  and 
ill-temper  it  occasioned. 

Dr.  Fordyce  Barker,  physician  and  surgeon,  of 
New  York,  was  next  called  as  an  expert  witness 
on  behalf  of  the  prosecution.  He  was  examined 
by  Mr.  Porter.  He  stated  his  professional  expe 
rience,  and  that  he  had  carefully  investigated  and 


ASSASSIN-  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


345 


studied  the  subject  of  insanity  ;  he  defined  insanity 
to  be  a  disease  characterized  by  an  alteration  of 
the  mental  faculties  and  a  perversion  of  the 
normal  actions  of  the  individual ;  in  cases  of 
insanity  either  a  change  of  substance — and  that 
wrought  by  disease — or  p.  change  in  the  healthy 
performance  and  functions  and  duties  that  belong 
to  some  part  of  the  body  is  always  found,  either 
one  or  both. 

O.  What  is  moral  insanity  ?  A.  Moral  insanity 
is  wickedness ;  it  is  a  term  not  found  in  medical 
science,  as  involving  a  form  of  insanity;  it  is  a 
term  loosely  used  to  excuse  or  palliate  conduct 
which  is  on  any  other  theory  indefensible. 

Q.  Is  the  habit  of  boasting  of  intimacy  with 
persons  holding  high  positions  and  possessing  in 
fluence  and  power — where  there  is  no  such  inti 
macy — proof  of  an  insane  delusion  ?  A.  It  is  not, 
because  it  is  not  the  result  of  disease,  and  insanity 
is  a  disease ;  it  is  the  result  of  vanity  and  self- 
conceit  and  love  of  notoriety,  and  these  are  vices 
and  not  diseases. 

Q.  In  your  judgment  as  a  scientist,  would  a 
man's  assertion  that  he  was  the  chosen  instrument 
of  God  and  was  in  direct  and  immediate  com 
munication  with  Him  as  a  trusted  agent  be  evi 
dence  of  an  insane  delusion  ?  A.  It  would  not,  for 
several  reasons;  it  might  be  asserted  as  an  ex 
cuse  for  crime  ;  where  it  exists  as  one  of  the  symp- 
.toms  of  insanity  it  is  susceptible  of  proof.  If  the 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GU1TEAU, 


act  were  inconsistent  and  contrary  to  the  previous 
habits  and  normal  character  of  the  individual  it 
would  be  a  strong  presumptive  evidence  of  in 
sanity.  For  example,  if  a  man  who  has  always 
been  a  hard  working,  industrious  man,  of  correct 
habits,  moral,  affectionate,  fond  of  his  wife  and 
children,  should  cut  the  throat  of  his  child,  and 
give  as  his  reason  that  he  was  directed  by  the 
voice  of  God,  that  would  be  almost  a  sure  proof 
of  insanity;  whereas,  where  a  man  has  been  al 
ways  a  tyrant  to  his  wife  and  children,  utterly 
reckless  in  his  conduct,  of  bad  impulses,  regard 
less  of  the  laws  of  God  and  man,  such  an  excuse 
would  not  be  a  defense,  and  would  not  be  any 
evidence  of  delusion. 

Prisoner:  That  suits  my  case  exactly,  Doctor. 
I  have  been  always  a  Christian  man,  and  I  have 
been  strictly  virtuous  for  years. 

Court,  to  the  witness  :  State  to  what  class  of 
subjects  insane  delusions  generally  relate. 

Witness  :  That  depends  upon  the  existing  cause 
of  the  insanity. 

Court:  Do  they  always  relate  to  something 
affecting  the  individual  himself  or  his  relations 
with  other  persons? 

Witness  :  Insane  delusions  are  false  beliefs  as 
to  facts  ;  absurd  and  extravagant  opinions  are 
governed  by  differences  in  the  intellectual  powers 
of  different  individuals  ;  some  are  buoyed  up  by 
extravagant  hope  and  confident  belief  in  success, 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


while  others  are  depressed  and  inclined  to  take  a 
dark  view  of  every  question. 

Court:  Is  an  insane  delusion  ever  the  result  of 
a  process  of  reasoning? 

Witness:  No. 

After  further  questioning,  Mrs.  Scoville  for  the 
first  time  ventured  to  take  part  in  the  examina 
tion  of  a  witness,  against  the  earnest  protest  of 
the  prisoner,  who  told  her  to  mind  her  own  busi 
ness.  She  said  to  the  witness:  "  Doctor,  can  a 
person  be  born  insane  from  malformation  of  the 
brain?" 

Witness  :  That  produces  idiocy  and  imbecility, 
not  insanity. 

Mrs.  Scoville:  Can  it  develop  into  insanity? 

Witness:  A  person  with  a  malconstructed  brain 
may  be  more  liable  to  insanity. 

Mrs.  Scoville  :  That  is  what  I  wanted  to  know. 
I  am  much  obliged. 

o 

At  the  afternoon  session,  L.  S.  Gobel.  of  New 
ark,  N.  J.,  testified  that  the  prisoner  had  offered 
him  some  life  insurance  applications,  and  had  bor 
rowed  money  on  several  occasions. 

The  next  witness  was  William  P.  Copeland,  a 
Washington  journalist,  who  picked  out  the  news 
paper  scraps  that  were  found  on  the  prisoner  and 
indicated  the  various  papers  from  which  they  were 
cut,  several  of  them  being  from  the  Brooklyn 
Eagle. 

The  next  witness  was  H.  T.  Ketcham,  of  Brook- 


-,  „  g  TRIAL   OF  CIIA  RLES  J.   G I  'ITEA  U, 

lyn,  attorney  and  counselor-at-law,  who  had  been 
law  clerk  to  Mr.  Hawes  at  the  time  the  prisoner 
had  a  desk  in  the  office.  He  testified  that  he  had 
several  conversations  with  the  prisoner,  and  par 
ticularly  in  reference  to  a  patent  which  the  prisoner 
said  he  had  for  the  use  of  rouge  by  jewelers ;  the 
witness'  father,  who  is  a  jeweler,  told  him  when  he 
mentioned  the  matter  that  there  nwht  as  well  be 

o 

a  patent  for  the  application  of  bread  to  butter ; 
the  witness  had  occasionally  lent  him  small  sums 
of  money. 

The  next  witness  was  Henry  Wood.  As  soon 
as  he  came  to  the  witness-stand  the  prisoner  ex 
claimed,  "  That  is  the  man  who  knew  my  wife 
before  I  did."  The  witness  testified  that  he  is  a 
resident  of  Philadelphia,  and  a  railway  manager; 
he  first  met  the  prisoner  in  1872  ;  the  prisoner 
called  at  his  house  at  that  time  to  thank  his  family 
for  some  friendliness  they  had  shown  to  his  wife  ; 
he  had  subsequently  seen  him  several  times  in 
connection  with  his  divorce  proceedings ;  the  last 
time  he  saw  him  was  when  the  prisoner  attempted 
to  deliver  a  lecture  in  a  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Philadelphia  on  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ; 
the  prisoner  spoke  for  about  fifteen  or  twenty 
minutes  and  then  stopped,  saying  that  his  book 
would  soon  be  out,- and  that  everybody  could  then 
see  what  he  thought  on  the  subject;  he  then 
passed  around  his  hat  for  a  collection,  which  was 
his  only  compensation. 


ASSASSW  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


Prisoner:  I  got  fifty  cents,  and  twenty-five  cents 
of  it  came  from  the  witness.  [Laughter.] 

To  the  question  whether  the  witness  had  seen 
anything  in  the  prisoner  to  indicate  unsoundness 
of  mind,  the  witness  replied,  I  did  not;  quite  the 
contrary  ;  he  always  appeared  to  me  as  a  man  of 
more  than  ordinary  intelligence,  but  wholly  want 
ing  in  principle. 

The  next  witness  was  Simon  D.  Phelps,  broker, 
of  New  York.  He  testified  that  he  had  practised 
law  in  Chicago,  where  he  was  a  member  of  the 
firm  of  Reynolds  &  Phelps  ;  the  prisoner  had  en 
gaged  that  firm  to  bring  a  suit  against  the  Oneida 
Community  for  $4,000  or  $5,000,  which  the  pris 
oner  claimed  to  have  deposited  with  the  Commu 
nity;  after  some  time  he  found  that"  the  prisoner 
had  lied  and  he  told  him  so. 

Wednesday,  December  I4th,  opened  with  the 
Rev.  Dr.  John  L.  Witherow,  of  Boston,  on  the 
stand.  He  is  pastor  of  Park  Street  Church, 
where  Guiteau  attended  when  in  Boston.  His 
testimony  related  to  Guiteau's  habits  in  the  devo 
tional  meetings  of  the  church,  and  his  opinion 
was  that  he  was  "  not  the  least  "  insane,  but  "  a 
very  acute  man." 

The  next  witness  was  Charles  A.  Bryan,  city 
clerk  of  the  Equitable  Life  Insurance  Company, 
of  New  York.  He  first  saw  the  prisoner  in  Feb 
ruary,  1  88  1,  when  he  called  to  inquire  what  com 
mission  would  be  allowed  for  obtaining  applica- 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

tions  for  insurance;  he  brought  in  an  application, 
and  asked  for  a  loan  or  advance.  He  persisted 
in  his  appeals  and  finally  got  an  advarjce  of  $15. 

The  witness  produced  two  letters  written  to  him 
by  the  prisoner  from  Washington,  and  said  that  he 
had  received  quite  an  avalanche  of  letters  from 
him.  He  had  never  seen  anything  in  the  prisoner 
indicative  of  unsoundness  of  mind,  but  thought 
him  a  very  shrewd  sort  of  a  fellow. 

Henry  M.  Collyer  was  next  called,  who  testified 
to  Guiteau's  transactions  in  the  collections  made 
for  Reese  Brothers  &  Co.,  after  which,  on  account 
of  the  serious  illness  of  a  juror,  the  Court  ad 
journed  for  the  day. 

On  Thursday,  December  I5th,  Mr.  Collyer  was 
re-called.  He  always  regarded  Guiteau  as  "per 
fectly  sane." 

J.  M.  Justice,  a  lawyer  of  Logansport,  Indiana, 
was  the  next  witness.  He  testified  to  having  been 
acquainted  with  the  prisoner  in  Logansport  in 
1878;  saw  him  nearly  every  day  for  three  \veeks ; 
he  was  boatdinor  at  the  house  of  William  Tones. 

o  J 

He  was  stoutly  contradicted  by  the  prisoner  all 
the  way  through,  but  his  testimony  was  not  impor 
tant. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Shippen,  pastor  of  All  Souls 
Church,  in  Washington,  was  next  called  upon,  and 
testified  that  that  he  and  the  prisoner  boarded  at 
the  same  house  of  Mrs.  Grant,  and  became  casu 
ally  acquainted;  the  question  of  the  prisoner's 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  ^s  1 

sanity  never  occurred  to  him ;  he  (Guiteau)  seemed 
a  little  peculiar — that  is,  nervous  and  quick  of 
speech — but  witness  thought  him  as  "straight"  as 
any  one;  there  was  nothing  about  him  to  suggest 
insanity. 

Dr.  Wilson  Noble,  of  Washington,  physician  to 
the  jail  in  which  Guiteau  is  confined,  was  then 
called,  and  testified  that  the  prisoner  had  suffered 
a  little  from  malaria  during  his  imprisonment, 
but  had  otherwise  been  well ;  his  pulse,  tempera 
ture  and  respiration  were  prefectly  normal ;  some 
time  after  the  President's  death,  witness  had  a 
talk  with  the  prisoner  about  the  "  removal "  of  the 
President,  as  the  prisoner  called  it,  and  asked  him 
why  he  did  the  act ;  he  said  he  was  inspired  to  do 
it;  but  (said  the  witness),  what  was  very  re 
markable  was,  that  he  qualified  the  inspiration  by 
saying  that  if  the  President  should  die  he  would 
be  confirmed  in  his  belief  that  it  was  inspiration ; 
witness  had  never  thought  of  the  prisoner's  in 
sanity  at  first,  but  after  that  question  was  publicly 
agitated  witness  examined  him  in  regard  to  it,  and, 
for  the  last  three  weeks  before  the  trial,  witness 
was  specially  observant  of  any  physical  changes 
that  might  occur,  and  he  saw  none. 

District-Attorney:  From  your  conversations 
with,  and  your  observations  of,  the  prisoner,  what 
is  your  opinion  of  his  sanity  or  insanity? 

Witness,  with  a  smile  of  incredulity :  He  is  a  per 
fectly  sane  man  ;  as  bright  and  intelligent  a  man 


<ic  2  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

as  you  would  see  in  a  summer  day;  bright,  quick 
and  intelligent ;  I  never  saw  anything  in  him  that 
savored  of  insanity ;  he  is  of  nervous  tempera 
ment,  a  very  quick,  impulsive  man,  a  little  im 
patient  of  restraint,  sometimes  demanding  a  little 
more  than  is  usually  allowed  to  prisoners ;  but 
there  never  was  any  evidence  whatever  to  my 
mind  of  insanity. 

In  the  course  of  cross-examination  the  prisoner 
gave  his  version  of  the  interview  detailed  by  the 
witness.  He  said  :  "  The  question  came  up,  '  Sup 
pose  the  President  recovers?'  I  said,  'If  he  does, 
it  is  because  the  Lord  has  countermanded  His 
order,  just  as  He  did  in  the  case  of  Abraham.' 
But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  President  died ; 
therefore  the  Lord  confirmed  the  act." 

The  next  witness  was  Joseph  A.  Reynolds,  a 
lawyer,  of  Chicago.  He  detailed  his  acquaintance 
with  the  prisoner  when  he  first  came  in  May,  1868, 
as  a  law-student  in  his  office,  and  afterward,  in 
May,  1875,  when  he  occupied  a  desk  there.  He 
visited  the  prisoner  in  jail  on  the  i4th  of  July, 
and  made  a  memorandum  of  his  conversation, 
which,  after  objection  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Scoville, 
he  proceeded  to  read.  The  memoranda  of  the 
first  interview  covered  his  political  work,  and  his 
expectation  of  liberty  at  no  distant  day.  In  this 
interview,  Guiteau  used  the  term  "  assassination" 
and  not  ''removal."  The  second  interview  of  the 
witness  with  the  prisoner  was  on  July  i5th.  When 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  353 

this  point  was  reached  the  prisoner  broke  in  ex 
citedly,  saying: 

I  want  to  ask  the  General  if  he  was  in  the  em 
ploy  of  Corkhill  at  that  time.  He  pretended  to 
be  my  friend.  If  he  came  in  disguise  as  a  detec 
tive  I  want  the  fact  shown  to  the  American  peo 
ple.  That  only  shows  the  trickery  of  this  prose 
cution  from  the  start.  Corkhill  is  the  man  that 
did  it  and  the  Lord  Almighty  will  curse  him  for  it. 
Mark  my  word  for  that,  man  ! 

The  second  interview  dealt  with  the  political 
situation  also.  The  third  interview  was  on  July 
1 8th.  At  this  time  the  prisoner  seemed  amazed 
that  the  "  stalwarts "  denounced  him.  He  pro 
nounced  this  fact  "most  astounding."  He  said  : 
"The  idea  of  General  Logan  saying  I  was  insane; 
I  am  not  any  more  insane  than  he  is ;"  he  then 
asked  for  pen  and  paper  and  wrote  his  Address 
to  the  American  People. 

Prisoner,  contemptuously :  You  were  a  pretty 
sharp  detective,  weren't  you,  General  ?  You'll 
probably  get  some  more  business  in  that  line. 
You  came  there  as  a  personal  friend  and  got  that 
information.  I  don't  care  a  snap  about  it,  gentle 
men  of  the  jury. 

A  fourth  interview  occurred  July  igth.  At  this 
time  he  was  very  much  more  calm  than  the  night 
before,  but  he  seemed  dispirited  and  considerably 
dejected  ;  he  said  that  he  thought  that  when  the 
President  had  entirely  recovered,  if  he  did  recover, 

30* 


354  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

there  would  be  a  great  change  in  the  public  mind 
in  regard  to  his  act ;  he  said  that  the  people  would 
not  be  so  violent  against  him,  and  that  his  friends 
could  and  would  come  cautiously  to  his  assistance 
and  make  the  people  see  the  act  in  the  right 
light ;  that  it  arose  from  patriotic  motives,  and  not 
from  malice  or  anything  else. 

After  considerable  angry  discussion  between 
prisoner  and  counsel,  the  cross-examination  was 
proceeded  with.  Mr.  Scoville  questioned  the 
witness  closely  as  to  the  cause  of  his  coming  to 
Washington,  and  he  stated  that  he  came  here  on 
indefinite  information  that  the  Attorney-General 
and  Secretary  Kirkwood  desired  to  see  him. 

Prisoner :  You  told  me  you  came  to  settle  up 
an  old  Treasury  claim.  That  is  the  kind  of  a 
man  you  are.  Why  didn't  you  tell  me  that  ?  What 
did  you  want  to  sneak  into  my  cell  for  ?  You're  a 
nice  specimen  of  humanity.  You  have  proved 
yourself  a  low,  dirty  scoundrel.  You  are  trying 
to  hang  me,  if  you  can.  You  must  have  a  high 
opinion  of  yourself.  A  nice  record  you  will  have 
in  Chicago,  Reynolds,  when  you  get  back.  Not 
one  word  Reynolds  has  said  I  wish  to  withdraw, 
but  I  do  not  like  the  mean,  dirty  way  in  which 
they  got  the  information.  It  is  contemptible. 

In  reply  to  further  questions  by  Mr.  Scoville, 
witness  said  he  made  no  misrepresentations  to 
the  prisoner ;  he  was  asked  to  go  to  the  jail  to 
see  him  by  the  Attorney-General  and  Secretary 


ASSASSSJV  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  ,r  r 

Kirkwood ;  he  went  as  a  matter  of  curiosity  to 
some  extent — that  is,  to  see  whether  the  prisoner 
had  changed  any  since  he  saw  him  last;  he  re 
ceived  no  pay  except  $83  for  his  expenses ;  he 
shook  hands  with  the  prisoner ;  said  he  was  glad 
to  see  him  and  expressed  solicitude  for  him. 

O.  You  were  admitted  as  a  gentlemen  who 
would  not  betray  confidence  ?  A.  I  suppose  so. 

Prisoner:  He  gave  me  his  personal  honor  that 
these  conversations  should  never  be  mentioned 
again,  and  he  has  come  and  blown  the  whole 
thing  out. 

O.  Did  you  ever  act  as  a  spy  before  ?  A.  I 
never  did,  nor  since  ;  nor  at  that  time. 

O.  Have  you  not  told  persons  in  Chicago  that 
you  considered  Guiteau  insane  ?  A.  No,  sir. 

The  Court  here  adjourned  for  the  day. 

At  the  opening  of  the  Court  on  Friday,  De 
cember  1 6th,  the  District- Attorney  called  to  the 
stand  George  D.  Barnard,  Deputy  Clerk  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Kings  County,  New  York.  He 
produced  the  original  record  in  the  case  of  Annie 
J.  Guiteau  against  Charles  J.  Guiteau,  application 
for  divorce,  which  was  read  in  full. 

General  Reynolds  being  recalled  to  the  stand, 
was  subjected  to  a  searching  cross-examination  as 
to  his  visits  to  the  jail,  and  Guiteau  continued  to 
heap  upon  him  the  vilest  abuse. 

The  District-Attorney  proceeded  to  read  news 
paper  extracts  which  the  last  witness  had  brought 


2  -6  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J,    GVITEAU, 

to  the  jail  and  read  to  the  prisoner.  They  com 
prised  telegraphic  despatches  from  Senator  Conk- 
ling"  expressing  abhorrence  of  the  prisoner's  act ; 
also  reports  of  interviews  with  Fred.  Grant,  Sena 
tor  Logan  and  others ;  also  editorials  on  the 
assassination.  The  reading  of  them  by  the  Dis 
trict-Attorney  was  interrupted  by  exclamations 
from  the  prisoner,  of  which  the  following  are 
types  :  "  That  is  false  ;  General  Grant  was  always 
very  kind  and  polite  to  me.  He  liked  the  ring  of 
my  speech."  "  That  is  what  Fred.  Grant  says. 
He  is  a  nice  youth,  is  he  not?  He  is  too  lazy  to 
get  a  decent  living.  He  is  a  dead  beat,  not  I." 
"  I  used  to  be  a  member  of  Beecher's  Church.  He 
was  supposed  to  be  a  virtuous  man  then,  and  per 
haps  he  is  now."  "  I  used  to  go  up  to  Logan,  pat 
him  on  the  back,  and  say,  '  How  are  you,  Gene 
ral  ?'  and  he  would  say,  '  How  are  you,  Guiteau  ?' 
He  thought  I  was  a  good  fellow.  Then  they  all 
turned  against  me,  just  as  Peter  did  when  he 
denied  the  Saviour  when  he  was  on  the  cross  and 
in  trouble.  But  they  have  got  over  it  now  and 
they  are  coming  up  like  proper  men.  My  life 
would  have  been  snuffed  out  at  the  depot  that 
morning,  if  God  Almighty  had  not  protected  me." 
In  reference  to  another  newspaper  extract,  speak 
ing  of  Guiteau's  boast  that,  if  he  got  the  Austrian 
Mission,  he  would  fill  the  position  with  dignity,  he 
said :  "  That  part  is  true."  [Laughter.] 

Mrs.    Ellen    C.   Grant,   of  Fourteenth   Street, 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


357 


Washington,  was  called  as  the  next  witness.  She 
testified  that  the  prisoner  had  boarded  in  her 
house  forty-one  days,  leaving  on  the  last  day  of 
June.  "That  was,"  said  the  District- Attorney, 
"  two  days  before  the  murder  of  the  President." 

"The  doctors  did  that,"  said  the  prisoner;  "I 
simply  shot  at  him." 

The  witness  stated  in  response  to  questions  by 
the  District-Attorney  that  she  never  noticed  in 
the  prisoner  anything  indicating  unsoundness  of 
mind.  X 

Mrs.  Annie  J.  Dunmire,  the  prisoner's  divorced 
wife,  was  next  called  to  the  stand.  Guiteau  de 
nounced  the  District-Attorney  in  the  severest 
terms  for  summoning  her.  Her  examination  was 
very  brief,  and  her  full  story  was  but  a  confirma 
tion  of  what  is  already  familiar.  When  she  was 
dismissed  from  the  stand  Guiteau  said,  "  I  know 
nothing  against  this  lady's  Christian  character ;  I 
know  her  well  and  have  much  respect  for  her." 

After  an  hour's  recess,  the  Court  reassembled 
and  the  District-Attorney  called,  as  an  expert,  Dr. 
Francis  D.  Loring;  of  Washington,  a  physician.  He 
stated  that  he  had  made  a  specialty  of  diseases  of 
the  eye  and  ear;  he  has  been  in  the  habit  of 
examining  the  eyes  of  patients  for  the  purpose  of 
determining  whether  or  not  the  appearance  of  the 
eye  gives  indication  of  disease  of  the  brain ;  he 
examined  the  prisoner's  eyes  at  the  jail  on  the  3<Dth 
of  November  and  5th  of  December,  and  had  found 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GU2TEAU, 


nothing  in  them  indicating  an  affection  of  the  brain  ; 
the  pupils  of  both  eyes  contracted  and  expanded 
naturally;  there  was  some  inequality  in  the 
strength  of  the  muscles  moving  the  eyes,  which, 
after  constant  reading,  sometimes  produced  some 
thing  like  a  squint,  but  that  had  no  connection 
with  disease  of  the  brain. 

The  next  witness  was  Dr.  Allen  McLean  Ham 
ilton,  of  New  York,  physician.  He  stated  that  for 
the  past  nine  years  he  had  made  a  special  study 
of  mental  and  nervous  diseases  and  had  written 
extensively  on  the  subject.  He  had  made  three 
personal  examinations  of  the  prisoner  and  pro 
ceeded  to  state  the  points.  He  found  him  to  be  a 
man  of  spare  build,  five  feet  five  and  three-quarter 
inches  in  height,  of  nervous  temperament,  with 
mixed  gray  hair,  with  no  apparent  physical  de 
formity,  of  135  pounds  weight;  he  found  nothing 
whatever  indicating  any  congenital  defect  ;  the 
head  was  slightly  asymmetrical  or  irregular,  but 
that  was  a  very  common  thing  ;  he  found  an  ap 
pearance  of  flatness  on  the  top  of  the  head,  but  it 
was  owing  to  the  way  the  hair  was  cut;  he  had 
taken  measurement  of  the  prisoner's  head  (which 
he  exhibited  in  a  diagram),  and  said  there  was  no 
irregularity  of  contour;  the  face  was  thin  but  sym 
metrical  ;  the  lines  on  either  side  of  the  nose  were 
perfectly  regular;  the  !ips  were  regular,  so  were 
the  teeth;  in  cases  of  idiocy  and  imbecility  it  often 
happens  that  the  teeth  are  irregular  ;  that  there 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


359 


are,  perhaps,  two  rows  or  some  peculiar  develop 
ment  and  he  had  examined  the  prisoner  with  that 
view ;  there  was  nothing  wrong  with  the  roof  of 
the  mouth ;  the  mouth  was  perfectly  symmetrical 
and  round;  the  hands  were  regular  in  shape: 
there  was  no  trouble  with  the  nails,  as  is  generally 
noticed  in  certain  kinds  of  congenital  trouble  ;  the 
fingers  were  symmetrical  and  the  hands  were  of 
like  size;  the  skin  was  well  nourished  and  moist 
and  had  none  of  the  appearances  which  charac 
terized  the  skin  of  insane  persons  ;  there  was  noth 
ing  to  indicate  any  trouble  with  the  circulation ; 
he  had  examined  the  eyes  and  found  that  there 
was  no  trouble  with  them  ;  the  tongue  was  turned 
slightly  to  the  left ;  but  he  did  not  attach  any  im 
portance  to  that,  because  the  prisoner  had  ap 
parently  perfect  control  of  his  tongue ;  there  was 
no  atrophy  in  the  tongue,  as  is  often  found  in 
cases  of  congenital  disease  ;  there  was  no  paralysis, 
no  loss  of  power  of  any  kind,  nothing  indicating 
any  disease  of  the  brain — either  that  originating 
before  birth  or  afterward  ;  during  the  examination 
the  prisoner's  manner  was  perfectly  quiet,  and  he 
answered  politely  and  rationally  the  questions 
asked  him ;  the  whole  circumference  of  the  head 
was  twenty-two  inches — the  measurement  being 
taken  lower  than  it  is  taken  by  hatters  ;  the  hatter 
measurement  of  the  prisoner's  head  was  seven 
and  one-eighth  inches,  which  is  the  average-sized 
head  ;  the  head  was  perfectly  symmetrical  with  the 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


exception  of  a  slight  bulging  on  one  side  ;  there 
was  no  evidence  of  a  bony  growth  on  the  skull 
and  no  ridges  or  protuberance  in  the  occipital 
process  ;  it  was  a  very  fair-sized  head. 

District-  Attorney:  And  you  did  not  find  in  the 
prisoner  any  external  evidence  of  mental  or  physi 
cal  disease? 

Witness  :  I  did  not. 

The  witness  went  on  to  state  there  was  great 

o 

difference  between  the  conduct  of  the  prisoner  in 
jail  and  the  court-room.  In  the  jail  he  was 
remarkably  quiet  and  self-possessed,  offering  the 
doctors  every  chance  to  examine  him.  His  man 
ner  and  behavior  in  court  made  witness  think  that 
he  was  "  playing  a  part." 

I  never  "play  a  part,"  Doctor,  said  the  prisoner. 
I  go  "  on  the  square."  You  and  Spitzka  do  not 
agree.  Spitzka  is  a  much  bigger  man  than  you 
in  the  business.  You  are  nothing  but  a  "  sub." 

After  some  further  unimportant  cross-examina 
tion  the  Court  was  declared  adjourned  till  Mon 
day.  The  reassembling  on  Monday  was  sad 
dened  by  the  fact  that  in  the  interval  Mr.  Hobbs, 
one  of  the  jurors,  had  lost  his  wife.  After  con 
sulting  with  Judge  Cox,  District-Attorney  Cork- 
hill,  referring  to  the  death  of  Mrs.  Hobbs,  said 
that,  while  the  situation  was  a  serious  one,  yet  the 
instincts  of  humanity  demanded  that  the  juror 
have  the  opportunity  to  give  proper  attention  to 
the  memory  of  his  deceased  wife.  Mr.  Scoville 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


361 


concurred  in  this,  and,  moreover,  suggested  that 
the  Court  grant  Mr.  Hobbs  ample  time  and  dis 
pense  with  the  attendance  of  an  officer.  The 
Court  accordingly  made  such  an  order,  and  then 
adjourned  until  Wednesday  morning. 

The  Court  was  called  to  order  at  10  o'clock, 
Wednesday,  December  2 1  st,  promptly,  all  the 
jurors  being  in  their  seats.  Dr.  A.  McLean 
Hamilton,  of  New  York,  was  recalled  to  the  stand 
for  the  purpose  of  cross-examination.  The  ques 
tioning  was  upon  the  witness'  training  for  his  pro 
fession,  upon  his  understanding  of  "inspiration," 
about  "  spiritual  agencies,"  will  power,  etc. 

Mr.  Scoville  questioned  the  witness  as  to  his 
acquaintance  with  Brown,  Maudsley  and  other 
writers  on  insanity,  and  whether  he  regarded 
Maudsley  as  an  authority.  The  reply  was  that  he 
thought  Maudsley's  views  too  loose  in  relation  to 
moral  insanity;  he,  the  witness,  did  not  believe 
in  moral  insanity;  that  was  a  term  used  by  Mauds- 
ley  and  others,  to  excuse  acts  committed  as  the 
result  of  ungovernable  anger  and  lust. 

Dr.  Worcester,  of  Boston,  whose  examination 
on  the  part  of  the  defense  was  commenced  some 
days  ago,  and  closed  abruptly,  because  he 
insisted  on  Mr.  Scoville  defining  what  he  meant 

o 

in  one  of  his  questions,  by  the  word  "  inspiration," 
was  called  to  the  witness-stand  on  the  part  of  the 
prosecution.  He  stated,  in  reply  to  questions  by 
the  District-Attorney,  that  he  .had  examined  .the 
21 


362  TRIAL   OF  CHAR  FES  J.   GUITEAU, 

prisoner  at  the  jail,  and  that  he  had  been  also  in 
daily  attendance  at  the  court-room  for  several 
weeks  past,  and  had  carefully  watched  the  pris 
oner's  conduct  during  that  time  and  heard  what 
he  said;  he  thought  he  was  sane. 

o 

After  a  rehearsal  of  the  prisoner's  career  in 
several  hypothetical  questions,  the  witness  again 
unhesitatingly  pronounced  his  conviction  that  the 
prisoner  was  sane. 

A  little  later  the  prisoner  broke  out  vehemently 
against  Mr.  Scoville,  saying:  It  is  an  outrage  on 
justice  for  this  man  to  come  here.  He  has  had 
no  experience  in  criminal  matters,  and  he  is  com 
promising  my  case.  I  here  require  him  publicly 
to  get  out  of  the  case.  I  would  rather  take  my 
chances,  even  at  this  late  hour,  with  Charlie  Reed, 
who  is  a  first-class  criminal  lawyer,  than  with  this 
idiot,  who  is  compromising  my  case  all  the  time. 
He  has  no  wit,  no  sense,  and  between  Corkhill 
and  him  I  have  a  pretty  hard  time.  [Laughter, 
which  seemed  to  put  the  prisoner  in  better  humor, 
and  in  which  he  joined.] 

After  further  outbursts  against  Mr.  Scoville, 
and  some  incidental  testimony  of  no  great  conse 
quence,  the  Court  adjourned. 

On  Thursday,  December  22d,  Dr.  Theodore  Di- 
mon,  of  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  was  the  first  witness  called. 
He  stated  that  he  had  been  summoned  to  testify 
for  the  defense ;  for  two  years  up  to  last  year  he 
had  been  superintendent  of  the  asylum  for  insane 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDE  N'T  GARFIELD. 


363 


criminals  at  Auburn ;  he  had  made  a  personal 
examination  of  the  prisoner ;  had  noticed  the  pris 
oner  in  court  and  had  heard  his  testimony. 

O.  From  your  personal  examination  and  from 
your  observation  of  the  prisoner,  what  is  your 
opinion  as  to  whether  he  is  sane  or  insane  ?  A. 
It  is  my  opinion  that  he  is  sane. 

Mr.  Scoville :  Does  that  include  the  judgment 
of  the  witness  upon  the  evidence  ? 

Witness :  It  includes  my  examination  and  my 
observation  of  the  prisoner. 

The  District-Attorney  then  propounded  to  the 
witness  a  hypothetical  question,  assuming  to  be 
true  all  the  evidence  brought  forward  by  the  prose 
cution,  and  asked  the  opinion  of  the  witness  as  to 
the  sanity  of  the  prisoner  at  the  time  of  the  shoot 
ing  of  President  Garfield. 

Witness  :  It  is  my  opinion  that  he  was  sane. 

In  the  cross-examination  the  witness  was  asked: 
What  is  your  opinion  as  to  whether  he  has  been 
playing  a  part  in  the-court-room  ?  His  reply  was  : 
I  do  not  think  he  has — a  part  in  simulating  in 
sanity  ;  he  has  been  acting  a  part  natural  to  his 
circumstances  and  character. 

Mr.  Scoville  recounted  to  the  witness  the  cir 
cumstances  attending  the  prisoner's  attempt  to 
establish  the  Theocrat,  and  asked,  assuming  all 
facts  stated  to  be  true,  what  would  they  indicate 
as  to  his  mental  soundness  or  unsoundness  ?  A. 
I  do  not  think  that,  by  itself,  that  would  be  suffi- 


364  'TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

cient  to  determine  the  question  whether  it  was 
fanaticism  or  insanity. 

In  reply  to  a  further  question  by  Mr.  Scoville, 
he  stated  that  the  fact  that  Dr.  Rice  had  come  to 
the  conclusion,  at  the  time  of  the  last  incident 
referred  to,  that  the  prisoner  was  a  fit  subject  for 
an  insane  asylum,  was  no  evidence  to  his  mind  of 
the  unsoundness  of  mind  of  the  prisoner;  he  did 
not  consider  Dr.  Rice  as  a  competent  observer,  as 
his  only  experience  was  in  sending  insane  persons 
to  asylums  on  certificates. 

Mr.  Scoville  then  alluded  to  the  first  letter  writ 
ten  by  the  prisoner  to  President.  Garfield  applying 
for  the  Austrian  Mission,  and  the  witness  stated 
that  it  might  be  an  evidence  of  insanity,  but  could 
not  say  positively,  as  he  did  not  know  sufficiently 
the  ways  of  office-seekers. 

After  some  further  unimportant  testimony,  the 
Court  at  half-past  12,  took  a  recess  for  half  an 
hour.  On  re-assembling,  the  cross-examination 
of  Dr.  Dimon  was  resumed.  Mr.  Scoville  called 
the  witness'  attention  to  Mr.  Corkhill's  hypo 
thetical  question,  and  he,  while  contending  that, 
the  facts  tended  to  show  that  the  prisoner  was 
sane,  admitted  that  many  of  them  taken  individu 
ally  were  not  inconsistent  with  the  existence  of  an 
unsound  mind.  He  said  that  many  insane  per 
sons  had  good  memories  and  were  capable  of  lay 
ing  and  following  plans  of  action. 

Q.  Suppose  a  person  acted  under  what  he  con- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


365 


sidered  a  divine  command,  and,  in  obedience  to  that 
command,  he  should  kill  the  President,  and  sup 
pose  he  honestly  believed  that  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  as  soon  as  they  were  informed  of 
his  motive,  would  not  only  excuse  him  but  applaud 
him  for  the  act,  in  your  opinion  would  that  be  any 
indication  of  unsoundness  of  mind  ?  A.  I  think 
it  would — an  honest  belief,  a  sincere  belief;  the 
domination  of  his  will  by  that  belief  is  what  I 
mean  by  this  answer. 

On  redirect  examination,  the  witness  was  asked 
the  reason  for  his  conclusion  that  the  prisoner  was 
sane.  Mr.  Scoville  objected,  and  the  prisoner 
asked  the  District- Attorney  to  pay  the  witness  his 
$500  and  let  him  go  home. 

The  Court  overruled  the  objection,  and  the  wit 
ness  stated  that  his  conclusion  was  based  upon  his 
examination  of  the  prisoner,  and  on  his  testi 
mony.  Witness  saw  nothing  in  the  prisoner  that 
was  not  the  result  of  his  natural  character,  early 
training  and  the  life  he  had  led. 

The  Court  at  3  o'clock,  adjourned. 

On  Friday  morning,  December  230,  it  was  an 
nounced  that  Mr.  Charles  H.  Reed,  of  Chicago, 
would  openly  act  as  counsel  for  the  defense.  Mr. 
Scoville  then  read  a  letter  from  Dr.  Samuel  Wor 
cester,  of  Salem,  Massachusetts,  and  also  one 
from  Dr.  Spitzka. 

William  A.  Edwards,  of  Brooklyn,  was  then 
called  to  the  stand,  and  was  greeted  by  the  pris- 

31* 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


oner  with,  "That  is  a  clerk  Shaw  used  to  have  in 
his  office  ten  years  ago.  I  have  not  seen  the  fel 
low  since." 

The  witness  testified  that  he  was  a  clerk  in  a 
law  office;  that  he  had  known  the  prisoner  from 
October,  1871,  up  to  April,  1872;  saw  the  pris 
oner  every  day.  He  had  heard  the  conversation 
to  which  Mr.  Shaw  testified  as  to  the  assassination 
of  President  Lincoln. 

O.  What  did  you  hear  ?  A.  The  conversation 
was  between  Mr.  Shaw  and  the  prisoner  ;  I  did 
not  pay  much  attention  to  the  first  part  of  the 
conversation,  until  they  talked  about  President 
Lincoln;  the  prisoner  said  to  Mr.  Shaw,  "Well, 
what  about  Booth?  Booth's  name  will  be  noto 
rious  as  long  as  Lincoln's."  Shaw  said,  "  Yes, 
notorious,  but  in  what  way?  Lincoln's  a  states 
man  and  patriot  ;  Booth  an  assassin."  The  pris 
oner  said  that  he  would  be  notorious  too.  Mr. 
Shaw  said,  "  If  you  are  notorious  in  that  way  you 
will  be  hanged." 

The  cross-examination  was  somewhat  lengthy. 
The  prisoner  made  frequent  interruptions.  "  This 
whole  thing  is  an  absolute  lie,"  he  declared  excit 
edly.  "What  is  the  use  of  wasting  any  time? 
The  whole  thing  is  a  lie.  Call  things  by  their 
ri<^ht  names.  This  man  ^ot  $8.00  or  $0.00  a  week 

C3  O  tr  tr  *7 

in  Shaw's  office.     The  whole  thing  is  a  farce  and 
the  Court  ou^ht  to  kick  this  man  out.     We  are 

o 

making  too  much  of  him.     Give  him  a  kick  and 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


367 


let  him  go.  He  was  nothing  but  a  little  sub.  He 
is  no  lawyer.  He  hasn't  got  brains  enough  after 
ten  year's  effort  to  be  admitted.  Let  him  go.  It 
only  shows  the  extraordinary  lying  of  the  prose 
cution.  There  is  not  one  word  of  truth  in  what 
this  man  says."  These  remarks,  interjected  at 
various  points  gave  rise  to  a  good  deal  of  noise 
and  confusion,  which  was  increased  by  the  many 
acrimonious  disputes  between  counsel.  The  re 
direct  and  re-cross-examination  elicited  nothing 
of  importance. 

The  next  witness  was  Dr.  S.  H.  Talcott,  of  Mid- 
dletown,  N.  Y.,  physician. 

In  reply  to  questions  by  the  District-Attorney 
the  witness  stated  that  he  has  made  a  special  study 
of  insanity  about  seven  years;  he  is  Medical  Super 
intendent  of  the  State  Homoeopathic  Asylum  for 
the  Insane  at  Middletown ;  he  is  a  regular  practi 
tioner  of  medicine  according  to  the  laws  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  He  is  a  member  of  county,  state 
and  national  medical  organizations  ;  he  is  president 
of  the  Orange  County  Medical  Society  and  of  the 
State  Homoeopathic  Medical  Society  of  NewYork; 
he  is  also  lecturer  on  insanity  in  the  Hahnemann 
Medical  College  of  Philadelphia ;  he  has  been 
chief  of  staff  in  the  homoeopathic  hospital  on  Ward's 
Island,  medical  superintendent  of  the  State  Asylum 
for  Inebriates  and  medical  officer  in  charge  of  the 
Soldiers'  Retreat  of  New  York  State;  he  has 
treated  over  a  thousand  cases  of  insanity;  he  has 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU. 


had  some  patients  who  had  attempted  murder  under 
the  insane  delusion  that  they  had  instructions  from 
the  Lord  ;  the  characteristics  of  such  persons  are 
those  of  great  excitability  ;  those  whom  he  had 
charge  of  had  not  only  insane  delusions,  but  also 
hallucinations  of  sight  or  hearing,  and  they  have 
spoken  of  their  intentions  before  attempting  their 
murderous  work. 

Insanity  is  a  disease  of  the  brain,  characterized 
by  derangement  of  the  mind  ;  he  made  an  exam 
ination  of  the  prisoner  on  the  3Oth  of  November 
and  4th  of  December;  he  has  been  present  in 
court  at  the  trial  since  the  2gth  of  November; 
heard  the  testimony  of  the  prisoner  and  watched 
his  movements  and  noted  his  remarks. 

District-Attorney  :  Assuming  his  testimony  on 
the  stand  to  be  correct,  was  he  not  sane  on  the 
2d  of  July,  when  he  murdered  the  President? 

Witness  :  On  the  assumption  that  he  was  tell 
ing  truth,  so  far  as  he  knew,  with  regard  to  the  ac 
tual  transaction,  and  on  the  assumption  that  the  re 
cord  of  hislife  as  given  by  himself  embodied  the  main 
facts  of  his  life,  I  should  be  of  the  opinion  that,  on 
the  2d  of  July,  when  he  murdered  the  President, 
the  prisoner  was  sane. 

Prisoner:  That  opinion  will  bring  you  $500, 
Doctor. 

After  a  protracted  cross-examination  which 
elicited  nothing  of  importance,  Dr.  Henry  P. 
Stearns  was  called  to  the  stand.  He  had  been 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GAR  FIELD. 


369 


a  practising  physician  for  twenty-three  years ;  was 
superintendent  of  the  Hartford,  Connecticut,  Re 
treat  for  the  Insane,  and  from  eight  hundred  to 
one  thousand  cases  had  come  under  his  care  ;  he 
made  four  examinations  of  the  prisoner,  in  jail,  in 
regard  to  his  physical  and  mental  condition  ;  those 
examinations  were  made  on  November  26th,  27th 
and  28th,  and  on  one  day  last  week. 

The  witness  described  carefully  the  examina 
tions  he  had  made  of  the  prisoner  in  company 
with  Drs.  Earl,  Collender  and  others. 

District- Attorney :  Did  he,  in  those  interviews, 
say  anything  about  his  having  committed  the 
murder  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Deity  ? 

Witness :  He  did ;  he  said  that,  having  done 
the  act  under  the  belief  that  he  was  inspired  by 
God  to  do  it,  he  was  entitled  to  an  acquittal  if  the 
jury  believed  he  was  inspired ;  I  could  not  take 
the  statement  of  an  individual  under  indictment 
for  crime,  in  itself  and  by  itself,  as  an  evidence  of 
insanity ;  from  my  observations  and  examinations 
I  think  the  prisoner  is  sane  ;  in  the  propositions 
laid  down  in  the  hypothetical  case  put  by  the 
District-Attorney  I  see  no  evidence  of  insanity. 

Further  cross-examination  failed  to  shake  the 
witness  up  to  the  time  of  adjournment. 

Dr.  Stearns  resumed  the  stand  on  Saturday 
morning,  December  24th.  Counsel  at  once  fell 
into  wrangling.  As  the  examination  proceeded, 
Mr.  Porter  spoke  of  Guiteau  as  "the  crimi- 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


nal,"  to  which  the  prisoner  replied  excitedly: 
I  am  no  criminal.  I  am  no  more  of  a  crimi 
nal  than  you,  Mr.  Porter.  I  am  more  thought 

J  O 

of  on  the  outside  than  you  are.  The  English 
papers  are  saying  that  I  am  a  bigger  man  than 
old  Porter,  and  it  is  true. 

Mr.  Porter:  I  suggest,  if  these  interruptions  are 
continued,  to  have  them  heard  from  the  dock. 

Prisoner,  defiantly:  From  the  dock,  hey!  the 
dock!  Try  it  on. 

The  next  witness  was  Dr.  Jamin  Strong,  super 
intendent  of  the  Insane  Asylum  at  Cleveland, 
Ohio.  He  stated  that  the  average  number  of 
patients  in  that  asylum  is  six  hundred  and  twenty- 
five,  and  that  he  has  treated,  in  all,  over  two  thou 
sand  insane  persons  ;  his  definition  of  insanity 
was  mental  disturbance  from  disease  ;  he  made  a 
personal  examination  of  the  prisoner  in  jail,  and 
observed  him  closely  in  court  since  the  5th  of 
December  ;  in  the  jail  examination  he  had  found 
the  bodily  condition  of  the  prisoner  good. 

"  I  will  save  you  trouble,  Doctor,"  the  prisoner 
said,  "  I  am  in  excellent  health  and  am  not  in 
sane." 

Witness,  sarcastically:  Yes;  I  agree  with  you 
in  that  respect, 

,  Here  followed  an  extended  discussion  on  the 
question  of  placing  the  prisoner  in  the  dock,  but 
the  Judge  held  the  case  under  consideration.  The 
witness  then  described  the  evident  will-power  of 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  >>  7  j 

die  prisoner,  and  pronounced  it  as  "  entirely  in 
compatible  with  insanity." 

On  re-direct  examination  the  witness  testified 
that  a  delusion,  in  witness'  judgment,  that  would 
culminate  in  an  act  of  homicide  on  the  2d  of  July, 
would  imply  a  degree  of  profound  mental  disturb 
ance  which  would  manifest  itself  after  the  commis 
sion  of  the  act. 

Prisoner:  You  and  Dr.  Stearns  do  not  agree 
on  that.  It  was  not  an  insane  delirium.  I  only 
claim  that  my  free  agency  was  destroyed. 

Witness:  A  vicious  propensity  will  neutralize 
free  agency. 

Dr.  Abram  M.  Shaw,  superintendent  of  the 
Middletown  (Connecticut)  Hospital  for  the  Insane, 
was  the  next  witness.  From  his  examination  and 
observation  of  the  prisoner,  it  was  his  opinion  that 
he  was  sane,  and,  assuming  to  be  true  the  facts 
stated  in  the  hypothetical  question  of  the  prose 
cution,  in  his  opinion  the  prisoner  was  sane  on  the 
2d  of  July. 

Witness  did  not  think  that  the  prisoner  had  in 
Court  feigned  insanity,  but  had  merely  acted  out 
his  natural  impulses  ;  the  fact  that  an  overt  act  of 
crime  was  committed  by  a  person  supposing  he 
was  doing  God's  will  would  not  necessarily  fur 
nish  evidence  of  unsoundness  of  mind  ;  it  would 
indicate  a  delusion,  but  not  an  insane  delusion. 

The  next  witness  was  Dr.  Orpheus  Evarts,  of 
College  Hill,  Ohio,  medical  superintendent  of  the 


^,-2  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

"  Sanitarium,"  a  private  hospital  for  the  insane. 
He  had  treated  in  the  neighborhood  of  four  thou 
sand  insane  patients  and  he  gave  instances  of  per 
sons  who  believed  themselves  inspired  ;  this  inspi 
ration  extended  to  the  general  acts  of  the  person ; 
the  fact  that  a  man  believed  that  he  would  live  for 
ever  was  no  indication  of  insanity ;  he  attributed 
no  significance  to  the  shape  of  the  head,  because 
no  two  insane  persons  that  he  ever  met  had  heads 
shaped  alike.  From  his  examination  and  observa 
tion  of  the  prisoner,  the  witness  had  formed  the 
clear  opinion  that  he  was  sane  on  the  2d  of  July. 

On  re-direct  examination  the  witness  said :  The 
prisoner  seemed  to  be  exaggerating  his  own 
peculiarities. 

Re-cross-examination. — O.  Suppose  he,  from 
day  to  day,  in  court,  does  things  which  are  entirely 
inconsistent  with  what  a  sane  man  would  do  under 
the  same  circumstances,  what  would  that  indicate? 
A.  If  he  had  a  motive  and  was  smart  enough  to  do 
it,  I  should  think  it  consistent  with  sanity ;  he  has 
been  exaggerating  his  own  peculiarities. 

O.  What  are  his  peculiarities?  A.  Egotism, 
sharpness,  smartness,  vulgarity,  ingratitude. 

Mrs.  Scoville  was  called  to  the  stand  for  a  few 
moments  on  minor  points,  and  the  Court,  at  a 
quarter  to  3  oclock,  adjourned  until  Tuesday.  As 
the  hand-cuffs  were  being  placed  upon  the  pris 
oner,  he  broke  out  with  "  To-morrow  is  Christmas. 
I  wish  the  Court,  the  Jury  and  the  American  peo- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PR  ESI  DENT  GARFIELD.  373 

pie,  and  everybody  else,  a  happy  Christmas.    I  am 
happy."    So  closed  the  sixth  week  of  the  trial. 

Proceedings  were  resumed  on  Tuesday  morn 
ing,  December  27th. 

Dr.  A.  E.  Macdonald,  Medical  Superintendent 
of  the  New  York  City  Asylum  for  the  Insane,  was 
the  first  witness  called.  He  gave  a  detailed  ac 
count  of  his  experience  with  insane  persons,  and 
stated  that  more  than  six  thousand  cases  had 
come  under  his  care.  After  considerable  question 
ing,  he  was  asked  about  moral  insanity  and  said  :  I 
do  not  believe  in  it ;  I  have  never  seen  a  case  of  it ; 
moral  insanity  is  another  name,  and  has  been 
since  its  invention,  for  wickedness  or  craft ;  it  was 
first  used  at  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution  to 
excuse  the  slaughter  that  took  place. 

Telling  of  his  personal  examinations  of  Gui- 
teau,  the  witness  said :  He  had  already  told  me 
that  it  was  the  act  of  God.  I  asked  him  why  he 
did  not  leave  the  execution  of  the  act  to  the 
Almighty ;  he  hesitated  for  a  moment  but  finally 
answered  that  the  Almighty  did  not  make  all  the 
arrangements  for  the  execution  of  acts,  but  left 
some  of  the  details  to  be  carried  out  by  the  per 
sons  who  performed  them ;  I  asked  him  what  his 
expectation  as  to  the  outcome  was ;  he  said  he 
gave  himself  no  concern,  that  the  Almighty  had 
taken  care  of  him  so  far,  and  would  do  so  through 
out  the  trial ;  I  asked  him  why  he  should  have  ar 
ranged  for  the  detailing  of  troops  at  the  jail ;  then 
32 


374  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

again  he  hesitated  and  flushed  in  the  face;  he 
went  on  to  say  that  some  details  were  left  to  him ; 
he  said  he  had  no  doubt  that  he  would  be  acquit 
ted  on  the  ground  of  insanity  ;  he  said  he  had 
been  looking  up  the  subject  of  insanity,  and  while 
he  was  not  medically  insane,  he  was  legally  in 
sane,  and  would  be  acquitted  on  that  ground ;  I 
asked  him  what  disposition  would  be  made  of  him  ; 
he  replied  that  he  would  be  sent  to  an  asylum  ;  I 
inquired  whether  he  would  like  to  stay  there  all 
his  life ;  "  Oh,  no,"  he  said,  "  I  have  been  looking 
up  the  law  and  find  that,  after  being  there  a  short 
time,  I  can  apply  for  a  commission  to  examine  me  ; 
of  course  that  commission  will  find  that  I  am  not 
insane  and  then  I  will  be  discharged."  I  found  no 
evidence  of  insanity  in  the  shape  of  his  head  or 
in  the  appearance  of  his  face. 

District- Attorney  :  From  your  personal  exami 
nation  of  the  prisoner  and  your  careful  observa 
tion  of  him  during  the  trial,  is  he  in  your  opinion 
a  sane  or  an  insane  man  ? 

Witness :  I  believe  him  to  be  a  sane  man. 

District-Attorney :  Do  you  think  that  he  has 
been  feigning  and  playing  a  part,  or  that  he  has 
been  acting  out  his  natural  character  ? 

Witness :  In  my  judgment,  the  man  has  been 
playing  a  part  all  the  time  in  court;  I  base  that 
opinion  on  my  observation  of  him  in  the  jail  and 
his  conduct  during  my  visits  to  the  jail,  as  con 
trasted  with  his  conduct  here. 


ASSASSW  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


As  to  his  conduct  in  court,  I  think  that,  an  insane 
person  showing"  such  excitement  and  making  such 
interruptions,  would  not  have  so  much  method  or 
so  much  deliberation  in  the  selection  of  the  time 
and  nature  of  these  interruptions  ;  they  would  be 
made  simply  when  the  impulse  came  upon  him,  with 
out  reference  to  what  particular  phase  of  the  trial 
was  in  process,  and  without  regard  to  whether  the 
evidence  that  was  being  was  for  or  against  him  ; 
the  prisoner  has  not  the  same  frankness  as  you 
find  in  insane  persons;  I  notice  that  when  the  evi 
dence  was  in  his  favor  he  made  no  interruptions 
whatever  ;  for  instance,  on  the  direct  examination 
of  his  brother,  when  the  evidence  appeared  to  be 
in  his  favor,  there  were  no  interruptions  ;  but  on 
the  cross-examination  of  his  brother  as  to  the 
question  of  his  father's  sanity,  when  some  testi 
mony  was  given  that  told  against  the  prisoner,  he 
broke  out  in  interruptions.  In  a  general  way,  I 
would  say  that  the  conduct  of  the  prisoner  in  court 
was  not  such  as  my  observation  of  insane  persons 
would  lead  me  to  expect  as  the  couduct  of  an  in 
sane  person  ;  in  short,  witness  believed  the  prisoner 
to  be  sane  now,  and  to  have  been  so  on  July  2d. 

On  Wednesday  morning,  December  28th,  the 
cross-examination  of  Dr.  Macdonald  was  re 
sumed. 

Q.  You  said  yesterday:  "In.  my  judgment  the 
man  has  been  playing  a  part  all  the  time  in  court." 
Do  you  mean  feigning  insanity?  A.  I  believe 


376  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

that  he  has  been  feigning  what  he  believes  to  be 
insanity — not  insanity  really.  [Applause.] 

Q.  Your  opinion  is  that  he  has  been  attempting 
to  the  extent  of  his  ability  to  appear  insane  ?  A. 
Yes,  sir. 

The  next  witness  was  Dr.  Randolph  Barksdale, 
physician-superintendent  of  the  Central  Lunatic 
Asylum  of  Virginia,  located  near  Richmond.  He 
has  made  insanity  a  special  study  since  1873.  He 
visited  the  jail  and  made  a  careful  examination  of 
the  prisoner ;  he  had  also  observed  him  in  court 
since  the  2ist  of  November  ;  from  his  observation 
and  examination,  his  opinion  was  that  the  prisoner 
was  sane.  To  the  question  whether  the  prisoner 
wras  acting  out  his  natural  character  in  court  or 
was  feigning,  the  witness  replied  that  he  was 
fei^ninof ;  he  thought  so  from  the  marked  contrast 

o  o  '  o 

between  the  prisoner's  behavior  in  court  and  his 
behavior  in  jail.  To  the  first  and  second  hypo 
thetical  questions,  the  witness  replied,  that  in  his 
opinion  the  prisoner  was  sane  on  the  2d  of  July. 

The  next  witness  was  Dr.  John  H.  Collendar, 
of  Nashville,  Tenn.  He  has  made  insanity  the 
subject  of  special  study  some  twelve  years.  He 
is,  and  has  been  for  the  last  twelve  years,  superin 
tendent  of  the  Tennessee  Hospital  for  the  Insane. 
He  made  a  personal  examination  of  the  prisoner 
in  the  jail  on  the  25th  of  November.  His  opinions 
as  to  the  prisoner's  sanity  were  the  same  as  those 
of  his  immediate  predecessors.  An  exciting  discus- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  <,77 

o  /  / 

sion  here  arose  between  counsel,  in  which  the  pris 
oner  took  an  active  and  abusive  part.  The  prose 
cution  thereupon  insisted  that  he  be  placed  in  the 
dock.  After  considerable  controversy  and  strong 
language,  Mr.  Porter  closed  the  appeal  of  his 
side  most  pungently,  saying:  "The  assassin  of 
the  President  will  assassinate  no  more  forever, 
and  the  voice  which  is  not  silenced  now  will  be 
as  dumb  as  that  of  his  victim  when  the  end  of  the 
law  is  reached.  [Applause.]  No  man,  sane  or 
insane,  is  permitted  to  say  that  the  arm  of  the 
law  in  his  presence  is  nerveless." 

Judge  Cox  then  rendered  his  decision,  consign 
ing  the  prisoner  to  the  dock,  and  to  the  dock  he 
was  at  once  removed.  Proceedings  were  then 
resumed  and  the  plaster  cast  of  the  prisoner's 
head  was  handed  to  the  witness,  and  he  was 
asked  whether  there  was  any  marked  peculiarity 
in  the  head. 

He  replied  that  the  cast  presented  a  more 
shapely  and  symmetrical  head  than  he  had  ex 
pected  it  would,  but  placed  no  importance  on  the 
shape  of  the  head  as  indicating  sanity  or  insanity. 

On  re-direct  examination,  the  witness  stated  that 
he  did  not  think  the  prisoner  had  been  feigning 
insanity  in  the  court-room;  he  had  merely  been 
exaggerating  his  characteristics  of  self-conceit, 
impudence,  audacity  and  insolence. 

Prisoner :  In  other  words,  when  I  am  assaulted 
I  talk  back. 
32* 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 


The  court  then,  at  3  o'clock,  adjourned,  the  pris 
oner,  as  he  was  passing  his  counsel,  expressing" 
his  contentment  with  his  new  position  as  afford 
ing  him  more  pure  air. 

Thursday  morning,  December  29th,  the  prisoner 
was  placed  in  the  dock,  which  is  simply  a  railed 
enclosure  on  the  south  end  of  the  room,  in  which 
criminals  are  seated  awaiting  trial.  It  is  about 
eight  feet  long  by  four  wide,  and  its  furniture  con 
sists  of  three  chairs  —  two  cane-seated  chairs  for 
the  bailiffs,  one  wooden-seated  for  the  prisoner. 

Dr.  Collender  was  recalled  and  cross-examined 
on  incidental  points,  one  being  the  appeal  of 
Guiteau  to  Senator  Cameron  for  money,  which 
the  witness  did  not  think  indicated  unsoundness 
of  mind. 

Dr.  Walter  Kempster,  of  Winnebago,  Wis., 
was  the  next  witness.  He  testified  that  he  is  the 
superintendent  of  the  Northern  Hospital  for  the 
Insane,  and  has  been  for  nine  years  ;  for  five 
years  he  had  been  associate  editor  of  the  Ameri 
can  Journal  of  Insanity  ;  he  was  satisfied  that 
there  is  no  special  form  or  shape  of  the  heads  of 
the  insane  ;  he  had  examined  the  head  of  the 
prisoner,  and  had  thought  that  the  deviations  in 
it  were  more  marked  than  was  shown  by  the  plaster 
cast  ;  there  was  a  slight  deviation  in  the  head  of 
the  prisoner  from  a  symmetrical  head. 

Q.  Did  you  ever  find  an  insane  man  who  said 
that  he  had  a  command  from  God  to  do  a  certain 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


act,  but  that  the  details  of  the  act  were  left  to 
him  ?  A.  No  ;  that  would  be  utterly  preposter 
ous  ;  the  details  of  the  killing  are  matters  of  no 
consequence  to  him  ;  he  seizes  the  first  object  he 
can  put  his  hands  on  to  do  the  act  ;  no  one  can 
realize  the  intensity,  vigor  and  'zeal  which  insane 
men  put  into  their  acts  ;  it  is  proverbial  among 
those  having  charge  of  the  insane  that  a  stroke  of 
a  madman  is  like  a  stroke  of  lightning  —  it  cannot 
be  avoided. 

Q.  Have  you  ever  met  an  insane  man  who 
paraded  in  public  his  insanity  as  an  apology  for 
the  commission  of  a  crime  ?  A.  No,  sir,  I  have 
not  ;  I  have  had  under  my  care  quite  a  number  of 
persons  who  had  committed  murder;  as  a  rule 
they  are  not  apt  to  talk  about  it,  but  when  spoken 
to  they  would  talk  of  it  in  a  bold  and  fearless 
way. 

Q.  Suppose  you  should  hear  a  man  state  that 
there  was  no  question  of  right  or  wrong  in  his  act, 
but  the  only  question  was  whether  the  Deity  fired 
the  shot  or  not,  would  you  consider  him  as  labor 
ing  under  an  insane  delusion  ?  A.  I  should  not  ; 
it  would  lead  me  to  the  conclusion  that  nothing  of 

o 

the  kind  existed  in  his  mind. 

The  witness  did  not  believe  in  "moral  insanity." 
It  was  a  term  applied  to  a  person  who  had  com 
mitted  an  outrageous  act  of  some  kind,  and  for 
whose  behavior  there  was  no  other  excuse. 

In  answer  to  the  hypothetical  questions  of  the 


2 go  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

prosecution,  the  witness  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that 
the  prisoner  was  sane  on  the  2d  of  July. 

District-Attorney:  From  your  observation  of 
the  prisoner  in  court,  do  you  think  that  he  is  acting 
out  his  character  naturally  or  that  he  is  feigning  ? 

Witness :  My  impression  is  that  he  is  feigning. 
My  reasons  for  that  belief  are  these — 

Prisoner:  I  am  not  feigning,  so  you  need  not 
give  your  reasons.  I  go  straight. 

A  serious  and  extended  disagreement  between 
counsel  occurred  at  this  point,  which  was  finally 
stopped  by  the  Court. 

Dr.  Kempster  resumed  the  witness-stand  on 
Friday  morning.  The  prisoner  was  so  noisy  that 
proceedings  were  slow,  and  nothing  of  special  im 
portance  was  elicited.  Some  aspersions  having 
been  cast  upon  the  medical  experts  who  had  testi 
fied  for  the  prosecution,  the  District- Attorney  said: 
They  are  men  who  adorn  their  profession  in  the 
States  where  they  live.  They  are  men  who  are 
recognized  throughout  the  Christian  world  as  au- 

o  o 

thorities  on  the  question  about  which  they  speak. 
They  are  men  whose  counsel  and  advice  are  taken 
by  representative  men  of  their  States  on  that 
question.  They  are  men  to  whom  are  intrusted 
the  unfortunate  insane  of  their  States.  It  comes 
with  poor  grace  from  the  gentleman  (Mr.  Scoville) 
to  say,  in  the  presence  of  these  distinguished  men, 
who  must  be  silent,  that  they  have  been  meeting 
nightly  to  weave  meshes  around  the  criminal.  He 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  ~>  g  j 

has  woven  them  around  himself,  and  it  comes  with 
still  poorer  grace  when  it  is  known  that  the  only 
two  men  in  this  country  who  dared  to  go  on  the 
stand  and  say  that  the  criminal  is  insane  were  two 
spawns  of  the  profession,  who  were  unable  to  say 
that  they  believed  in  a  God. 

Dr.  John  P.  Gray,  of  Utica,  N.  Y.,  the  last  of 
the  expert  witnesses  for  the  prosecution,  was  then 
called  to  the  stand.  He  stated,  in  reply  to  ques 
tions  by  the  District-Attorney,  that  he  is  medical 
superintendent  of  the  New  York  State  Lunatic 
Asylum,  and  has  been  connected  with  that  insti 
tution  since  September,  1850;  he  has  had  under 
his  immediate  control  and  observation  an  ao-o-re- 

oo 

gate  of  about  i  2,000  insane  persons,  embracing  all 
classes  of  society,  all  occupations  and  professions; 
he  defined  insanity  as  a  disease  of  the  brain,  in 
which  there  is  an  association  of  mental  disturb 
ance,  a  change  in  the  individual,  a  departure  from 
himself  and  from  his  own  ordinary  standard  of 
mental  action,  and  a  change  in  his  way  of  feeling, 
thinking  and  acting.  Here  the  witness  was  inter 
rupted  by  the  prisoner  shouting  out:  "  That  is  my 
case;  I  shot  the  President  on  the  2d  of  July,  and 
I  would  not  do  it  again  for  a  million  dollars."  The 
witness  went  on  to  define  and  illustrate  the  dis 
tinctions  between  delusions,  illusions  and  halluci 
nations,  and  was  again  interrupted  by  the  prisoner 
shouting  out:  "You  are  a  very  learned  man,  doc 
tor,  but  you  forget  the  Abrahamic  class — the  class 


382  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

that  I  belong  to."  The  witness  said  he  did  not 
believe  in  moral  insanity  and  had  not  for  years; 
that  term  was  intended  to  signify  a  perversion  of 
the  moral  character,  leaving  the  intellectual  facul 
ties  still  sound. 

District- Attorney:  If  a  man  is  a  habitual  liar 
and  cheat  would  these  qualities  indicate  insanity? 

Witness:  No,  sir;  they  would  indicate  de 
pravity. 

District-Attorney:  Has  insanity  any  tendency 
to  make  men  criminals  ? 

Witness:  No;  no  more  than  neuralgia  or  dys 
pepsia,  or  anything  else ;  it  is  only  a  disease ;  it 
does  not  put  anything  new  in  a  man ;  it  only  per 
verts  what  is  there. 

Witness  described  fully  his  personal  interviews 
with  the  prisoner,  conversations,  examinations, 
etc.,  occupying  the  time  till  the  adjournment. 

On  Saturday,  December  3ist,  Dr.  Gray  was  on 
the  stand  all  day.  Nothing  new  was  elicited.  The 
witness  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  prisoner  was 
sane  at  the  time  of  the  shooting.  The  cross- 
examination  extended  up  to  the  hour  of  adjourn 
ment.  The  Court  adjourned  till  Tuesday,  Jan 
uary  3d. 

Court  reassembled  on  Tuesday  morning,  Janu 
ary  3d.  Dr.  Gray  was  again  called  to  the  stand. 
Witness  did  not  believe  in  what  is  termed  by  some 
writers  "  emotional  insanity,"  or  "  moral  insanity.'* 
"  Kleptomania "  he  considered  simply  thieving ; 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


383 


"dipsomania,"  drunkenness,  and  "  pysomania,"  in 
cendiarism.  Their  designations  were  simply  con 
venient  terms  which  had  been  invented  to  cover 
certain  crimes. 

Insanity  (said  witness)  is  never  transmitted 
any  more  than  cancer.  I  never  knew  any  one  to 
be  born  with  a  cancer.  A  susceptibility  to. insanity 
is  undoubtedly  transmitted  from  parents  to  chil 
dren,  but  insanity  does  not  necessarily  follow,  ex 
cept  from  some  profound  physical  disturbance. 

The  examination  progressed  with  tedious  de 
tail.  In  the  effort  to  extract  something  favorable 
to  the  defense,  counsel  renewed  the  attack  upon 
the  witness  again  and  again  ;  the  prisoner  mean 
while  had  observed  a  marked  decorum,  at  intervals 
gazing  out  of  the  window,  but  most  of  the  time 
he  appeared  to  be  busily  engaged  in  writing  his 
autograph  upon  cards,  which  were  handed  up  to 
him  from  the  audience  by  the  attendants. 

Mr.  Scoville  desired  to  put  in  evidence  certain 
tabulated  statements  from  the  annual  reports  of 
the  witness.  From  these  it  appeared  that,  of  the 
fifty-four  cases  of  homicide  by  insane  people,  seven 
of  them  were  by  persons  acting  under  the  insane 
delusion  of  divine  authority  for  their  acts.  At 
the  request  of  the  District-Attorney,  witness  de 
scribed  briefly  these  cases,  and  added,  "  each  case 
was  one  of  marked  insanity  independent  of  the 
homicidal  act." 

After  recess,  Dr.  Gray  was  asked  a  few  more 


384  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAb, 

questions  by  Mr.  Scoville,  when  the  District- 
Attorney  announced  the  conclusion  of  the  evi 
dence  on  the  part  of  the  Government. 

Dr.  Bowker,  of  Kansas  City,  was  then  called 
by  Mr.  Scoville,  in  sur- rebuttal  for  the  defense. 
Witness  met  Mrs.  Dunmire  at  Leadville,  Col,  and 
conversed  with  her.  She  said  she  had  entertained 
grave  doubts  as  to  the  mental  condition  of  Gui- 
teau  at  the  time  she  obtained  her  divorce,  and 
thought  at  the  time,  perhaps,  she  had  better  defer 
the  divorce  proceedings,  and  await  some  further 
developments  in  his  mental  condition 

Clark  Mills,  the  sculptor,  was  called  to  identify 
the  plaster  cast  of  Guiteau's  head. 

John  W.  Guiteau  was  again  put  upon  the  stand, 
and  questioned  in  relation  to  Guiteau's  letter  to 
Senator  Cameron,  and  after  some  discussion  on 
technical  points  the  Court  adjourned. 

On  reassembling  on  Wednesday,  January  4th, 
Mr.  Scoville  presented  a  petition  to  be  allowed 
to  introduce  new  witnesses.  Permission  being 
granted,  Dr.  Beard,  of  New  York,  took  the  stand 
but  the  admission  of  his  testimony  was  objected 
to  and  he  was  set  aside. 

The  next  witness  called  by  Mr.  Scoville  was  J. 
J.  Brooks,  Chief  of  the  Treasury  Secret  Service. 
Witness  visited  the  prisoner  at  the  jail  the  night 
after  the  shooting.  Guiteau  was  in  bed  at  the 
time.  tie  arose  in  great  anger  and  excitement, 
and  wanted  to  know  what  I  meant  by  disturbing 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


385 


his  rest  and  quiet  at  that  hour  of  the  night.  I 
said  it  ill  became  him,  a  murderer,  to  speak  in 
that  manner ;  that  he  had  disturbed  the  rest  and 
quiet  of  a  whole  nation.  He  replied  that  he  was 
no  murderer,  but  a  Christian  and  a  gentleman ; 
that  he  had  been  moved  to  do  the  act  as  a  politi 
cal  necessity,  and  for  the  good  of  the  country. 

Witness  detailed  at  some  length  his  conversa 
tion  at  that  time,  but  without  disclosing  anything 
new  or  important. 

Mr.  Scoville  introduced  a  letter  written  by  the 
prisoner's  father,  in  which  he  expressed  an  opin 
ion  that  the  prisoner  was  insane. 

Guiteau  called  out  sneeringly,  "Was  the  object 
of  reading  that  letter  to  show  that  my  father  was 
a  crank,  or  that  I  am  ?  You  are  the  biggest  jack 
ass,  Scoville,  I  ever  saw.  If  you  can't  learn  any 
sense,  I  shall  have  to  rebuke  you  in  public." 

Mr  Davictge,  on  behalf  of  the  prosecution, 
then  requested  that  the  defense  make  known  the 
law-points  upon  which  they  desired  the  ruling  of 
the  Court. 

Mr.  Scoville  replied,  that  his  time  had  been  so 
occupied  he  had  not  been  able  to  arrange  them  in 
proper  form.  If,  however,  it  was  the  practice  in 
this  Court  to  settle  the  points  of  law  before  going 
to  the  jury,  he  would  like  a  little  time  for  the  proper 
preparation  of  this  part  of  the  case. 


33 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ARGUMENTS    OF   COUNSEL,   ETC. 

MR.  DAVIDGE,  on  behalf  of  the  prosecu 
tion,  here  presented  the  law-points  on 
which  that  side  relied.  He  read  them 
as  follows :  First,  The  legal  test  of  responsibility, 
where  insanity  is  set  up  as  a  defense  for  the  alleged 
crime,  is  whether  the  accused  at  the  time  of  com 
mitting  the  act  alleged  knew  the  difference  be 
tween  right  and  wrong  in  respect  of  such  act; 
hence,  in  the  present  case,  if  the  accused  at  the 
time  of  committing  the  act  charged  knew  the 
difference  between  right  and  wrong  in  respect  of 
such  act,  that  is,  if  he  knew  what  he  was  doing, 
and  that  what  he  was  doing  was  contrary  to  the 
law  of  the  land,  he  is  responsible. 

Second.  If  the  accused  knew  what  he  was  do 
ing,  and  that  what  he  was  doing  was  contrary  to 
the  law  of  the  land,  it  constitutes  no  defense,  even 
if  it  were  true,  that  when  he  committed  the  act  he 
really  believed  that  he  was  thereby  producing  a 
public  benefit  or  carrying  out  an  inspiration  of 
Divine  origin  or  approval. 

(386) 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELV. 


Third.  Insanity  would,  however,  constitute  a 
defense,  if,  by  reason  of  disease,  the  accused  at 
the  time  of  committing  the  act  charged  did  not 
know  what  he  was  doing,  or,  if  he  did  know  it, 
that  what  he  was  doing  was  contrary  to  law. 

Prisoner :  I  had  no  choice  in  the  matter. 

Fourth.  The  only  evidence  in  the  present  case 
tending  to  show  an  irresistible  impulse  to  com 
mit  the  homicide  is  the  claim  of  the  accused  that 
bis  free  agency  was  destroyed  by  his  alleged  con 
viction  that  the  death  of  the  President  was  re 
quired  for  the  good  of  the  American  people,  and 
was  divinely  inspired,  but  such  conviction,  even  if 
it  really  existed,  could  not  afford  any  excuse  when 
the  party  knew  what  he  was  doing,  and  that  it 
was  contrary  to  law.  No  mere  delusion  or  error 
of  judgment,  not  even  a  fixed  belief  that  what  is 
prohibited  by  the  law  is  commanded  or  approved 
by  Divine  authority  [Prisoner:  " God's  law  is 
higher  than  man's  law"]  can  exempt  the  accused 
from  responsibility  for  breaking  the  law.  To  have 
such  effect,  the  commission  of  the  act  charged 
must  have  been  the  result  of  an  insane  delusion, 
which  was  the  product  of  disease  and  of  such  force 
as  to  deprive  the  accused  of  the  degree  of  reason 
necessary  to  distinguish  between  right  and  wrong 
in  respect  of  the  act,  so  that  at  the  time  of  com 
mitting  the  act  he  either  did  not  know  what  he 
was  doing,  or,  if  he  did,  that  the  act  was  wrong,  or 
contrary  to  the  law  of  the  land. 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


At  Mr.  Scoville's  suggestion,  the  Court  was 
then  adjourned  until  Saturday  morning. 

The  time  of  the  Court  was  occupied  on  Satur 
day,  January  7th,  in  the  presentation  and  argu 
ment  of  the  legal  instructions  which  the  two  sides 
respectively,  wanted  the  Judge  to  give  to  the  jury. 
The  presence  of  the  jurors  was  not  necessary  and 
after  the  usual  recess  they  took  a  carnage  drive 
instead  of  returning  to  court. 

Messrs.  Reed  and  Scoville  were  early  at  their 
desks  in  consultation,  but  the  Government  counsel 
were  somewhat  tardy  in  entering.  The  Judge 
himself  was  late  and  it  was  not  until  10:15  that 
the  crier  announced  the  arrival  of  his  Honor. 
When  the  prisoner  was  conducted  to  the  desk 
Mr.  Reed  stepped  over  to  talk  to  him  and  an  ani 
mated  colloquy  ensued,  emphasized  by  the  pris 
oner  by  blows  of  his  fist  upon  the  dock  rail. 

The  Judge  soon  announced  that  he  was  ready 
to  hear  arguments  as  to  the  prayers  on  the  part 
of  the  prosecution  and  defense,  and  Mr.  Davidge 
opened  on  the  part  of  the  prosecution.  He  re 
called  the  fact  that  on  Wednesday  last  he  had 
submitted  to  the  Court  four  simple,  brief  prayers 
for  instructions  to  the  jury. 

The  first  of  those  prayers  asked  his  Honor  to 
declare  that  the  test  of  responsibility  in  respect  of 
human  intelligence  is  the  power  to  distinguish  be 
tween  right  and  wrong. 

The  next  prayer  declared  that   if  any  human 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


389 


being,  possessed  of  that  degree  of  intelligence, 
commits  a  crime  he  is  responsible  for  it — in  other 
words,  that  degree  of  intelligence  makes  him  re 
sponsible  for  the  control  of  his  own  moral  nature, 
his  passions,  his  emotions,  his  intellectual  nature, 
his  beliefs  whatever  they  may  be,  in  short,  for  his 
entire  conduct. 

In  the  third  prayer  he  asked  his  Honor  to  de 
fine  just  what  legal  insanity  is — to  wit,  that  it  is  the 
pfbduct  of  a  diseased  mind,  and  in  the  last  of  these 
instructions  he  asked  his  Honor  to  lay  down  for  the 
guidance  of  the  jury  what  is  the  law  in  respect  of 
what  is  called  delusion.  In  the  present  case  the 
only  irresistible  impulse  was  the  so-called  inspira 
tion. 

In  this  last  prayer  he  asked  his  Honor  to  say 
that,  if  the  inspiration  was  the  product  of  the 
man's  depraved  and  wicked  nature,  it  afforded  no 
shadow  of  excuse ;  and  that,  to  be  an  excuse,  it 
must  be  the  product  of  an  insane  delusion.  In 
order  to  shut  the  door  upon  controversy  in  re 
spect  of  those  prayers,  he  proceeded  to  read 
them  again.  He  then  argued  the  points  with 
great  fullness.  During  the  argument,  counsel 
had  several  tilts.  At  one  time  the  following  pas 
sage  occurred: 

o 

Mr.  Davidge:  There  is  a  man  (indicating  the 
prisoner)  who,  it  is  contended  for  the  defense,  is 
imbecile. 

"  Is  what  ?"  said  the  prisoner,  Mr.  Davidge  hav- 

33 


390  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

ing  laid  the   emphasis  on   the   second  syllable  of 
"imbecile." 

"  Now  listen  to  him,"  continued  Mr.  Davidge, 
"  and  see  what  a  farce  has  been  acted  here  for 
these  many  weeks.  He  not  only  knows  the  differ 
ence  between  right  and  wrong,  but  he  knows  the 
law  of  the  case." 

"I  do  not  pretend  to  be  any  more  insane  than 
yourself,  Mr.  Davidge,"  said  the  prisoner,  "and  I 
have  not  been  insane  since  the  2d  of  July.  It  was 
transitory  mania  that  I  had  ;  that  is  all  the  insanity 
that  I  claim." 

Mr.  Davidge:  He  knows  the  principles  of  law 
applicable  to  the  case  as  accurately  as  any  lawyer. 

Prisoner :  I  do  not  pretend  that  I  do  not.  My 
head  is  as  good  as  yours  or  as  Porter's.  I  am  no 
fool.  The  Lord  does  not  employ  fools  to  do  His 
work. 

Mr.  Davidge:  Mr.  Scoville  has  said  that  this 
man  was  a  fool  for  three  weeks. 

Prisoner:  Scoville  is  a  fool  himself.  (To  the 
Deputy  Marshal)  Keep  quiet.  Let  me  alone. 
I  repudiate  entirely  Scoville's  theory  of  the  de 
fense.  I  do  not  even  want  him  to  address  that 
jury.  I  will  do  that  business.  Two  hours'  speech 
to  the  jury  will  settle  the  question. 

Mr.  Porter:  The  Court  has  heard  the  prisoner 
long  enough.  Now  let  Mr.  Davidge  be  heard. 

After  summing  up  the  law  asserted  by  the 
prayers  of  the  prosecution,  Mr.  Davidge  said:  Such 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


I  understand  to  be  the  law  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia.  I  submit  the  prayers  of  the  prosecution,  merely 
adding  that  those  propositions  of  law  ought  to  be 
read  together,  and  when  so  collated  I  think  your 
Honor  will  come  to  the  conclusion  that  they  com 
pletely  cover  the  legal  requirements  of  the  case. 

After  a  recess,  Mr.  Reed  addressed  the  Court 
in  reply  to  Judge  Davidge,  and  confined  his  argu 
ment  to  the  consideration  of  two  questions,  first, 
the  definitions  laid  down  in  the  revised  statutes  of 
murder  and  manslaughter,  under  which,  if  malice 
be  not  proven,  he  contended  the  crime  would  be 
manslaughter;  second,  the  application  to  this  case 
of  the  question  of  reasonable  doubt  in  connec 
tion  writh  the  plea  of  insanity. 

Colonel  Reed  concluded  his  argument  at  a 
quarter  past  2,  with  a  peroration,  in  which  he  made 
a  glowing  allusion  to  the  latitude  of  liberty  and 
the  far-reaching  impartiality  of  the  law  under  free 
institutions.  It  would  be  monstrous  and  shocking, 
he  said,  to  the  sense  of  justice  of  any  man  that 
an  accused  person  should  be  condemned  to  the 
gallows  about  whose  sanity  any  reasonably  fair 
man  man  could  have  any  question.  Send  a  luna 
tic  to  the  gallows  in  America?  Whether  he  is  a 
lunatic  or  not  is  a  question  to  be  decided  by  the 
jury.  When  they  consider  the  evidence  in  the  se 
clusion  of  the  jury-room  they  may  say:  Well, 
this  man  committed  an  awful  crime,  atrocious,  in 
describable,  unparalleled  in  history.  Yet  we  are 


-202  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUI1EAU, 

not  quite  certain  that  he  knew  that  he  was  doing 
wrong.  Is  it  not  the  doctrine  of  humanity  to  give 
the  man  the  benefit  of  that  doubt  and  hesitation 
and  for  the  Court  to  say  to  the  jury,  if  you  have  a 
reasonable  doubt,  it  is  your  duty  to  give  the  benefit 
of  it  to  the  accused  ? 

Mr.  Scoville  arose  to  close  the  argument  in  sup 
port  of  the  prayers  asked  by  the  defense,  but  first 
commented  on  the  absence  of  the  jury,  which  had 
availed  itself  of  the  privilege  given  by  Judge  Cox 
this  morning,  and  had  not  returned  to  the  court 
room  after  the  recess.  He  said  that  he  did  not 
complain  of  it,  but  it  was  one  of  the  incidents  of 
the  trial  which  he  could  not  help  noticing.  The 
jury  had  heard  the  arguments  of  the  prosecution 
and  it  was  hardly  fair  not  to  hear  the  defense. 

A  lively  tilt  between  the  opposing  counsel  fol 
lowed  this  remark,  but  Mr.  Scoville  denied  casting 
any  reflections.  It  was  only  one  of  the  accidents 
by  which  the  defense  suffered.  He  then  went  on 
to  argue  that  the  Court  should  not  take  from  the 
jury  the  right  to  pass  upon  the  question  whether 
the 'prisoner  would  have  committed  the  act  if  he 
had  been  of  sound  mind. 

Without  concluding  his  argument,  the  Court  at 
3  o'clock,  adjourned  till  Monday. 

The  ninth  week  of  the  Guiteau  trial  opened 
Monday,  January  Qth,  a  crowded  room  giving 
proof  of  the  interest  still  existing.  The  prisoner 
appeared  rather  nervous  and  his  countenance  in- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


dicated  anxiety.  When  he  had  taken  his  seat  in 
the  dock  he  glanced  around  stealthily  over  the 
audience  and  immediately  began  a  harangue,  evi 
dently  intended  for  the  jury. 

"  I  have  received,"  he  said,  "  some  eight  hun 
dred  letters,  a  great  majority  of  them  from  ladies. 
When  I  oret  time  I  shall  attend  to  them.  I  want 

o 

to  send  my  greetings  to  the  ladies  of  America 
and  thank  them  for  their  sympathy.  They  don't 
want  me  to  be  hanged.  Public  opinion  is  fast 
changing.  I  received  Saturday  a  check  for  $1000 
from  the  Stalwarts  of  Brooklyn,  and  another  for 
$500  from  the  Stalwarts  of  New  York.  I  want  this 
jury  to  understand  how  public  opinion  is  on  this 
case." 

Mr,  Scoville  resumed  his  argument  in  support 
of  the  prayers  for  the  defense,  taking  it  up  at  the 
point  where  he  left  off  on  Saturday.  He  pro 
ceeded  without  interruption  for  one  hour,  and  his 
remarks  were  listened  to  with  marked  attention. 
He  laid  stress  upon  the  propositions  that  insane 
men  often  know  the  difference  between  right  and 
wrong,  and  for  that  reason  conceal  their  plans  ; 
that  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  should  attach  to  the 
plea  of  insanity,  when  raised,  with  the  same  force 
as  when  urged  in  connection  with  the  commission 
of  the  crime.  His  allusion  to  the  decision  of  Judge 
Davis,  "  who  went  out  of  his  way,"  he  said,  "  to 
pass  upon  something  not  involved  in  the  case  he 
was  then  considering,"  brought  Judge  Porter  to 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUJTEAU, 


his  feet  with  an  indignant  reply  that  the  charge 
was  false. 

Mr.  Scoville  retorted  that  the  opinion  of  a  man 
who  sat  on  the  same  bench  with  a  Barnard  and  a 
Cardozo  should  not  be  received  with  much  con 
sideration. 

Judge  Porter,  with  even  more  vehemence,  re 
iterated  that  the  charge  of  counsel  was  absolutely 
false  ;  that  Judge  Davis  never  sat  on  the  bench 
with  either  of  the  gentlemen  named. 

Mr.  Scoville  insisted  that,  when  the  style  of  pro 
ceedings  best  suited  to  a  police  court  was  intro 
duced  here  by  the  prosecution,  he  should  com 
ment  upon  them  as  he  deemed  fitting.  He  should 
not  be  frightened  by  the  tragic  utterances  of 
Judge  Porter.  He  had  heard  the  same  notes 
years  ago  from  the  owls  at  night  in  the  woods  of 
Ohio. 

Mr.  Davidge  protested  that  not  five  minutes 
had  been  devoted  to  the  proper  scope  of  the  argu 
ment,  and  the  Court  warned  counsel  that  they 
must  abstain  from  personalities. 

Mr.  Scoville  concluded  his  argument  at  12 
o'clock,  and  in  conclusion  desired  to  make  a  few 
remarks  of  a  personal  character.  Alluding  to  his 
controversies  with  Judge  Porter,  he  disclaimed  any 
intention  of  transgressing  the  bounds  of  propriety 
or  the  rules  of  practice,  but  he  should  criticise  the 
conduct  of  counsel  when  it  merited  criticism,  and 
the  threats  of  the  prosecution  would  not  intimidate 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


him.  Citing  the  custom  of  counsel  upon  the  other 
side  of  bowing  to  the  Jury  upon  entering,  Mr. 
Scoville  said:  Sometimes  it  is  three  bows  all 
around:  sometimes  more,  never  less  than  three. 
It  has  never  been  done  by  counsel  upon  this  side, 
and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  criticize  its  propriety." 

Judge  Porter:  The  gentlemen  is  simply  instanc 
ing  his  lack  of  politeness.  If  he  has  no  apology 
to  offer,  I  shall  certainly  not  apologize  for  him. 

Recess  was  then  taken. 

After  recess,  Mr.  Corkhill  stated  that  he  had  not 
expected  to  speak  on  the  legal  points,  relying  upon 
the  assurance  of  the  defense  that  the  question  of 
jurisdiction  would  not  be  raised  ;  but  as  the  last 
two  prayers  of  the  defense  distinctly  made  that 
issue,  he  felt  it  to  be  his  duty,  as  the  prosecuting 
officer  of  the  Government,  to  address  the  Court 
upon  a  question  to  which  he  had  devoted  much 
careful  consideration.  He  then  proceeded  to  read 
from  printed  slips  an  exhaustive  argument  upon 
the  subject  of  jurisdiction.  The  argument  occu 
pied  the  attention  of  the  Court  for  one  hour. 

Mr.  Davidge  then  addressed  the  Court  upon 
the  general  propositions  contained  in  the  prayer. 

He  discussed  seriatim  the  prayers  of  the  de 
fense  and  pointed  out  "  their  sophistries  and  in 
consistencies."  "The  object  of  the  prosecution," 
he  said,  "  is  to  obtain  from  your  Honor,  a  plain, 
clear  and  direct  ruling  upon  four  distinct  propo 
sitions.  The  apparant  object  of  the  defense  has 


3Q 6  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

been  to  befog  all  that  may  be  clear  in  this  case,  in 
the  vain  hope  that  they  may  get  to  the  jury  with 
some  uncertainty  attached,  in  some  way,  to  the 
case  upon  which  to  build  up  a  plea  for  acquittal." 

Mr.  Davidge  concluded  his  argument  at  five 
minutes  to  3  o'clock.  The  Court  then  adjourned. 

On  Tuesday  morning,  January  loth,  the  court 
room  was  densely  crowded.  Mr.  Porter  pro 
ceeded  at  once  with  the  argument  of  the  prosecu 
tion  upon  the  prayers  presented  by  the  defense. 
His  opening  was  a  keen  reply  to  some  strictures 
upon  himself,  after  which  he  addressed  himself  to 
the  question  of  malice.  He  said  his  friend,  Mr. 
Davidge,  had  planted  himself  solely  and  squarely 
— in  regard  to  the  question  of  malice — on  a  statute 
of  the  United  States  which  assumed  the  fact 
that  there  might  be  a  homicide  without  malice. 
There  had  been  many  such  homicides,  but  the 
murder  of  Garfield  was  not  one  of  them. 

Four  days  after  he  formed  his  decision  of 
murder  he  gave  Mr.  Garfield  one  last  chance,  and 
wanted  to  know  whether  he  was  or  not  to  have 
the  consulship  at  Paris.  Elaine  had  rejected  his 
application  with  contempt. 

Prisoner:  He  never  rejected  it. 

Mr.  Porter:  He  demanded  of  the  President  the 
removal  of  Mr.  Elaine,  and  added  that  if  the  Presi 
dent  refused  it,  "you  and  your  administration  will 
come  to  grief."  He  did;  his  administration -did 
not.  The  President  died;  the  government  lives. 


ASSASSnV  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  ^gj 

It  is  under  the  control  of  a  President  who  will  do 
illustrious  honor  to  the  long  line  of  Presidents, 
and  the  man  who  murdered  his  predecessor  is 
brought  to  justice  by  him  under  the  law — by  him 
and  by  his  authority — and  we  demand  in  behalf 
of  the  o-overnment  that  this  assassin  shall  not  be 

o 

spared  under  false  pretenses. 

Prisoner:  You  \vere  employed  by  Mr.  Arthur 
under  a  misapprehension,  and  you  had  better  get 
off,  Mr.  Porter. 

Mr.  Porter :  Under  the  misapprehension  that 
the  law  was  stronger  than  the  prisoner.  The 
prisoner  thinks  that  Guiteau  is  stronger  than  the 
law  and  Scoville  thinks  with  him. 

Prisoner:  I  think  the  Almighty  mightier  than 
the  law. 

Mr.  Porter:  He  will  come  directly  before  the 
Almighty  and  he  had  better  postpone  his  argu 
ment,  if  he  has  any,  until  then.  He  will  feel  soon 
what  he  never  has  felt  before,  a  divine  pressure 
and  in  the  form  of  a  hangman's  rope. 

Prisoner :  We  will  see  about  that.  The  Lord 
has  the  law  fixed. 

Mr.  Porter,  continuing  his   argument :  Guiteau 

o  o 

through  Mr.  Scoville,  asks  you  to  charge  that  the 
question  is  whether  he  was  unsound  in  mind  ?  He 
then  proceeded  to  cite  from  the  case  of  the  Queen 
vs.  Davis,  already  cited  by  the   defense,   to   show 
that  it  was  not  a  parallel  case  to  the  present. 
Mr.  Porter,  passing  on  to  the  question  of  "  rea- 
34 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


sonable  doubt,"  presented  a  compilation  of  author 
ities  on  that  point  which  showed,  he  said,  that  in 
the  eighteen  States  from  which  the  authorities  were 
collated,  the  courts  had  reached  the  conclusion  that 
the  burden  of  proof  was  on  the  prisoner  to  estab 
lish  insanity  ;  and  not  only  that,  but  if  it  be  left  in 
reasonable  doubt,  that  does  not  avail  the  prisoner. 
He  must  demonstrate  that  he  could  not  distinguish 
between  right  and  wrong.  But  let  us  suppose 
that  he  really  believed  that  the  Almighty  Father 
of  us  all,  in  looking  for  an  appropriate  agent  to 
perform  a  mission  such  as  he  gave  to  the  Apostle 
Paul,  though  that  was  no  mission  of  murder,  had 
gone  to  the  stalwart  committee  rooms  in  the  city 
of  New  York  to  hunt  out  some  worthless  vaga 
bond  like  him,  and  that  on  examining  him  He  found 

o 

that  he  had  qualified  himself  for  the  crime  by  a  life 
of  imposture,  of  swindling,  of  beggary,  of  breach 
of  trust,  of  wrong,  of  adultery  and  of  syphilis  ; 
and  that  He  had  selected  him  in  the  interest 
of  the  great  Republican  party,  in  which  he  would 
represent  the  firm,  to  which  he  claims  to  belong, 
of  Jesus  Christ  &  Co.  Suppose  that  to  the  junior 
member  of  that  firm  there  had  been  committed 
by  divine  authority  the  power  and  duty  of  mid 
night  murder,  of  church  murder,  of  depot  murder, 
of  murder  everywhere.  Suppose  that  he  was  in 
spired.  He  was  inspired  in  both  ways.  He  was  told 
by  the  written  commandment  of  God  that  to  do  the 
act  would  be  to  do  murder  ;  and  he  swore  in  his 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  399 

answer  to  my  last  question  that  he  did  feel  per- 
1  sonal  remorse.  Now  what  is  the  law  of  irre 
sponsibility  ?  First,  the  jury  must  be  satisfied  by 
the  oath  of  an  honest  man  that  he  believed  he 
was  inspired.  Every  man  on  that  jury  knows  that 
there  is  no  honest  man's  oath  to  lead  him  to  that 
conclusion,  and  that  the  only  oath  they  have  in 
support  of  it  is  the  oath  of  the  murderer  strug 
gling  for  his  life  against  the  scaffold  which  is  his 
doom. 

"Struggling  for  truth  and  vindication"  exclaimed 
the  prisoner.  "  It  is  for  vindication  that  I  am 
struggling." 

Mr  Porter  went  on  to  argue  that  even  St.  Paul, 
with  his  Divine  inspiration,  had  no  immunity  from 
stripes  and  scourges  and  death,  but  that  he  bowed 
his  head  to  the  Roman  sword  and  suffered  that 
doom  by  the  permission  of  that  same  being  whom 
this  man  impiously  invoked  as  his  protector  and 
in  whose  name  he  had  menaced  even  the  Court 
and  jury. 

Mr.  Porter  concluded  his  argument  by  reading 
President  Garfield's  letter  complimenting  the 
Judge  who  laid  down  the  doctrine  of  responsibility 
in  connection  with  the  defense  of  insanity  in  the 
Jones-Gallatin  case.  He  added  that  Mr.  Garfield 
little  thought  that  that  letter  would  first  make  its 
appearance  in  black  lines  expressive  of  the  popu 
lar  grief  at  the  act  of  the  muderer  who  was  now 
before  this  Court  for  justice. 


TRIAL   OF  CHAXLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


Judge  Cox,  at  11.45,  began  the  reading  of  his 
decision. 

He  occupied  fifty-five  minutes  in  reading  that 
portion  touching  the  question  of  jurisdiction.  He 
reviewed  the  progress  of  opinion,  and  cited  all 
the  important  rulings  from  the  early  days  of  the 
common  law  in  England,  and  decided  against  the 

<->  O 

prayer  of  the  defense.  He  summed  up  the  ques 
tion  :  "The  jurisdiction  is  complete  in  the  place 
where  the  wound  is  inflicted  ;  consequently  this 
Court  has  full  cognizance  of  the  offense." 

o 

Judge  Cox  then  proceeded  to  consider  the  first 
and  second  prayers  of  the  prosecution  in  connec 
tion  with  the  third,  fifth,  sixth  and  eighth  prayers 
of  the  defense. 

The  first  instruction  asked  for  by  the  prose 
cution,  namely,  that  "  the  legal  test  of  responsi 
bility,  where  insanity  is  set  up  as  defense  for 
alleged  crime,  is  whether  the  accused  at  the  time 
of  committing  the  act  charged,  knew  the  difference 
between  right  and  wrong  in  respect  of  such  act," 
he  regarded  as  correct.  He  said  :  If  the  jury  find 
that  the  defendant  committed  the  act  charged,  and 
at  the  time  thereof  knew  what  he  was  doing,  and 
that  what  he  was  doing  was  contrary  to  the  law 
of  the  land,  it  constitutes  no  excuse,  even  if  it  is 
true  that  when  he  committed  the  act  he  really  be 
lieved  that  he  was  producing  a  great  public  bene 
fit,  and  that  the  death  of  the  President  was 
required  for  the  good  of  the  American  people  ; 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


nor  would  such  excuse  be  afforded  by  the  fact 
that  in  the  commission  of  the  act  he  was  con 
trolled  by  a  depraved  moral  sense,  whether  innate 
or  acquired,  or  by  evil  passions  or  indifference  to 
moral  obligations. 

At  the  reassembling  of  the  court  on  Thursday, 
January  1  2th,  Mr.  Davidge  took  a  position  in  front 
of  the  jury,  and  opened  his  argument. 

Whatever  disorder  or  levity  might  have  charac 
terized  the  trial  there  was  but  one  sentiment  in 
respect  of  the  conduct  of  the  jury.  All  com 
mended  their  dignified  deportment  and  close  and 
patient  attention  to  the  evidence,  and  he  could  not 
doubt  that,  as  they  had  received  the  commenda 
tion  of  all  in  the  past,  they  would  continue  to 
deserve  it  in  the  future  by  their  decision  of  the 
question  before  them. 

There  is  here,  gentlemen,  he  continued,  but  a 
single  point  for  discussion  and  consideration  —  the 
subject  of  insanity.  The  Court  will  tell  you  that 
in  this  land  of  law  it  is  not  allowable  for  a  man 
coldly  and  deliberately  and  treacherously  to  slay 
another  and  then  to  say  he  had  no  malice.  The 
Court  will  tell  you,  when  it  comes  to  charge  you, 
that  to  constitute  the  crime  of  murder  the  exis 
tence  of  malice  is  wholly  unnecessary,  and  that, 
indeed,  the  crime  committed  is  infinitely  worse  in 
the  absence  of  that  element  than  if  it  was  present. 

In  the  progress  of  the  trial  very  many  vague  and 
general  expressions  have  crept  into  the  cause. 
34* 


402 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  £    GUITEAU, 


We  have  heard  of  crazy  men,  of  men  off  their 
balance,  of  insane  men,  and  hence  it  was  neces 
sary  to  apply  to  the  Court  for  a  clear  and  per 
spicuous  definition  as  to  what  is  insanity  in  a  legal 
sense.  The  medical  experts  have  defined  insanity 
from  the  standpoint  of  medicine  and  it  was  neces 
sary  to  have  it  defined  from  the  standpoint  of  law. 
Even  if  a  man  be  deficient  in  intelligence  it  does 

o 

not  follow  that  he  shall  be  permitted  to  commit 
murder  with  impunity.  It  takes  one  degree  of 
intelligence  for  a  man  to  make  a  contract,  another 

o 

to  make  a  will  and  another  to  do  any  other  act. 
But  when  you  come  to  crime,  such  a  crime  as  we 
have  here,  murder — "murder  most  foul  and  most 
unnatural" — the  law  requires  a  very  slight  degree 
of  intelligence  indeed. 

Here  Mr.  Davidge  read  Judge  Cox's  instruc 
tions,  No.  i  and  No.  2.  In  comment  on  these 
Mr.  Davidge  said  :  That  is,  gentlemen  of  the  jury, 
if  any  human  being  has  any  degree  of  intelligence 
which  enables  him  to  understand  the  act  he  is 
doing,  and  if  he  has  sense  enough  to  know,  and 
does  know  that  that  act  is  in  violation  of  the  laws 
of  the  land,  or  wrong,  then  no  frenzy,  no  passion 
will  afford  any  excuse  whatever;  then  no  disease 
of  his  moral  nature  will  constitute  any  excuse 
whatever;  then  no  belief,  however  profound, 
though  a  man  through  reason  and  reflection  may 
reach  the  conclusion  that  the  act  is  the  suggestion 
of  and  commanded  by  Almighty  God,  will  afford 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


any  excuse  whatever  for  the  perpetration  of 
crime. 

Thus  you  will  see  that  a  man  may  be  here  who 
has  been,  styled  a  crank  or  off  his  balance  and 
even  partially  insane  and  yet  may  be  abundantly 
responsible  for  crime.  What  is  the  act  committed 
here?  Murder,  murder,  murder  by  lying  in  wait 
—  what  is  commonly  called  assassination.  How 
great  a  degree  of  intelligence  does  it  take  to  in 
form  a  man  that  that  is  wrrong  ?  What  degree  of 
intelligence  was  necessary  to  make  a  lawyer  know 
that  it  was  in  violation  of  the  law  of  the  land  to 
kill  ?  What  degree  of  intelligence  was  necessary 
to  make  a  religious  man  to  know  that  the  everlast 
ing  edict  had  gone  forth  from  Almighty  God  — 
"  Thou  shalt  commit  no  murder  ?" 

My  learned  brethren  on  'the  other  side  do  not 
assert  that  this  man  did  not  know  what  he  was 
doing.  The  defense  is  two-fold.  Mr.  Scoville 
says  that  the  intelligence  of  this  man  was  of  such 
a  low  order  that  he  did  not  know  that  it  was  wrong 
for  him  to  commit  the  murder.  The  prisoner  sup 
plemented  that  assertion  with  another  equally 
false,  and  he  acted  wisely.  He  said  he  was  no  fool 
and  we  all  know  he  was  no  fool.  He  knew  per 
fectly  well  that  no  defense  could  stand  before  this 
or  any  other  jury  resting  on  the  foundation  of  his 
counsel,  Scoville,  so  he  supplemented  it  with 
another  to  the  effect  that  he  had  the  degree  of  in 
telligence  required  by  law,  but  that  he  acted  under 


404  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

an  insane  delusion,  the  product  of  disease ;  that 
he  was  commanded  by  Almighty  God  to  slay  the 
President  of  the  United  States.  He  says  that  in 
consequence  of  this  pressure  from  above  he  per 
petrated  this  vile  deed.  Scoville  acted  for  the 
best  and  did  all  that  could  be  done,  though  Heaven 
knows  that  all  was  not  much,  but  that  was  the  fault 
not  of  him,  but  of  the  material  that  he  had  to  use. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  Scoville  did  his  best,  but  in 
this  case  the  shrewdness  and  intelligence  of  this 
prisoner  showed  a  full  appreciation  of  the  situa 
tion.  He  knew  that  it  was  impossible  to  run  the 
gauntlet  of  this  trial  as  an  imbecile,  but  that  he 
would  be  stripped  both  in  respect  of  his  intel 
lectual  and  moral  character.  Then  he  had  his 
choicest  invention — the  so-called  inspiration. 

I  have  said  it  was  murder.  It  is  more  than 
murder.  It  is  the  murder  of  the  head  of  the  nation 
— the  chief  magistrate  of  50,000,000  of  people. 
It  is  said  that  there  is  a  divinity  that  doth  hedge  in 
a  king.  We  have  no  king,  but  we  have  a  Re 
public  presided  over  by  a  President,  who,  without 
royal  robes  or  trappings,  would  inspire  respect 
equal  to  that  inspired  by  king  or  kaiser.  That  is 
the  crime — the  political  crime— the  murder  of  the 
head  of  a  great  Republic.  *  *  *  I  have  told 
you  the  crime.  I  have  told  you  the  victim.  Now, 
who  is  the  prisoner?  In  the  beginning  we  did 
not  know  who  he  was.  We  could  not  have  enter 
tained  a  very  good  opinion  of  him.  In  the  begin- 


ASSASShV  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  Bo 

ning,  but  for  a  little  while,  he  passed  quite  current  as 
an  imbecile — a  fool.  He  has  since  been  uncovered. 
Indeed,  he  readily  uncovered  himself.  He  went 
on  the  stand.  After  that  nobody  any  longer 
doubted  the  degree  of  intelligence  of  this  man. 
What  has  been  shown  about  the  prisoner  ?  It  has 
been  shown  that  this  man,  who  has  been  repre 
sented  to  you  in  Mr.  Scoville's  opening  speech  as 
weak,  incapable  of  talking  coherently,  imbecile,  is 
a  man,  one  of  the  vilest  of  the  human  race,  of 
gigantic  schemes,  all  his  life  showing  a  tendency 
in  the  direction  of  schemes  that  would  startle  the 
ordinary  mind. 

As  a  mere  boy,  entering  the  Oneida  Community, 
he  wallowed  in  the  filth  of  that  association  for  six 
years — a  lawless  enterprise — leaving  it  to  estab 
lish  a  paper  in  New  York  called  the  Tkeocrat, 
which  was  to  overturn  all  religions,  all  churches 
and,  it  may  be,  all  governments.  Then  he  em 
barked  in  the  Inter- Ocean  enterprise,  of  which 
you  have  heard  so  much.  He  was  a  man  prone 
to  all  those  great  and  daring  undertakings  that  are 
so  fascinating  to  those  who  possess  the  profound 
love  of  notoriety  which  distinguishes  so  lament 
ably  this  prisoner.  He  is  no  longer  a  fool,  an 
imbecile.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  he  possesses 
the  nerve  and  resolution  to  execute  as  well  as  the 
mind  to  conceive.  If  I  were  to  sum  up  the  moral 
and  intellectual  qualities  of  this  man  I  would  say 
that  he  had  the  daring  eye  of  the  vulture  com- 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU. 


bined  with  the  heart  of  the  wolf.  Such  is  the  crime, 
such  is  the  victim,  such  is  the  slayer. 

Mr.  Davidge  then  took  up  the  history  of  the 
case,  beginning  with  the  prisoner's  coming  to 
Washington  in  pursuit  of  the  Paris  consulship, 
and  coming  down  to  the  1  6th  of  May,  when,  after 
being  ordered  by  Mr.  Elaine  never  to  speak  to 
him  again  about  the  Paris  consulship,  this  man  lay 
in  bed  canvassing  in  his  own  mind  what  would  be 
most  for  his  interest.  The  thought  then  flashed 
across  his  mind,  that  the  death  of  the  President 
would  solve  all  the  difficulties  in  the  Republican 
party. 

Now  look  at  the  political  situation.  Two  war 
ring  factions  and  a  little  political  life  —  a  little  life 
between  one  of  these  warring  factions  and  power  ! 
What  a  thin  partition  it  was  !  The  idea  occurred 
to  this  man,  why  should  I  not  extinguish  that  little 
life.  Why  should  I  not  batter  down  that  partition 
and  make  myself  the  great  benefactor  of  the  stal 
wart  element  of  the  Republican  party?  Hell- 
born,  awful,  I  admit,  but,  before  God,  the  truth! 

He  tells  us  when  this  conception  came.  It 
came,  gentleman,  in  the  night,  for  I  do  not  think 
that  in  the  sunshine  such  an  idea  could  enter  the 
soul  even  of  this  wretch.  The  next  day  it  oc 
curred  to  the  prisoner  again,  and  he  went  on  from 
day  to  day,  and  absolutely  devoted  two  weeks  to 
the  constant  contemplation  of  this  new  scheme. 
For  two  weeks  he  carried  in  his  breast  this  viper. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


He  lay  with  it  at  night,  he  ate  with  it,  he  drank 
with  it,  he  moved  about  among  men  with  it.  He 
lived  and  moved  and  had  his  beinof  with  that  awful 

o 

sin  his  constant  companion.  He  carried  it,  he 
nursed  it,  he  dallied  with  it  for  two  weeks.  On  the 
23d  of  May  he  felt  that  it  would  perhaps  be  better 
for  him  to  forego  this  wicked  scheme.  He  said  to 
himself,  "  Perhaps  I  can  get  this  office,  and  if  I 
can,  how  much  better  it  would  be  to  keep  my 
hands  clean  and  not  incarnadine  them."  He  made 
another  effort  on  the  23d  of  May  with  a  view  of 
getting  that  office. 

Listen  to  this  letter,  which  this  man  wrote  to 
General  Garfield  on  the  23d  of  May.  Mr.  Dav- 
idge  here  read  to  the  jury  the  letter  in  question, 
in  which  the  prisoner  spoke  of  Mr.  Elaine  as  being 
a  vindictive  politician  and  the  evil  genius  of  the 
President,  and  said  :  You  ought  to  demand  his 
immediate  resignation,  otherwise  you  and  the  Re 
publican  party  will  come  to  grief.  Does  not  every 
man  know  that  when  he  wrote  that  letter  he  was 
agitating  in  his  own  mind  the  subject  of  secret 
assassination  ?  He  got  no  answer  to  the  letter. 
He  goes  on  considering  this  fearful  subject. 

Prisoner:  I  was  praying  about  it,  to  find  out 
the  Deity's  will.  I  was  praying  for  two  weeks  prior 
to  the  ist  of  June. 

Mr.  Davidge  :  He  went  on  balancing,  this  man 
without  intelligence,  but  who  had  intelligence 


enough  to  stop  as  this  terrible  flower  was  unfold- 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

ing  its  petals ;  intelligent  enough  to  stop  to  give 
his  victim  a  chance.  He  got  no  reply,  and  on  the 
ist  of  June  he  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would 
put  out  that  little  light,  which  no  man  in  the  world 
could  ever  relight — the  light  of  life. 

Mr.  Davidge  then  went  on  to  refer  to  the  pur 
chase  of  the  pistol,  the  fact  of  the  prisoner's  prac 
tising  by  the  river  side  and  to  his  dogging  of  the 
President.  *  *  *  He  contemplated  the  pro 
priety  of  turning  the  house  of  God  into  a  house 
of  slaughter,  of  spilling  blood,  as  it  were,  on  the 
very  altar  of  the  great  God  of  us  all.  He  was 
armed  that  day.  Referring  then  to  the  prisoner's 
visit  to  the  jail  and  to  his  apprehension  of  the 
mob,  Mr.  Davidge  said :  He  did  not  fear  you  or 
the  ministers  of  the  law.  He  thought :  "  I  will 
break  through  the  meshes  of  the  law  as  if  they 
were  so  many  threads,  but  I  fear  that  terrible 
thing,  the  mob."  *  *  *  Referring  to  the  state 
ment  that  the  prisoner  had  attempted  to  kill  the 
President  two  weeks  prior  to  the  time  of  the 
shooting,  and  had  been  deterred  by  the  presence 
of  Mrs.  Garfield,  Mr.  Davidge  remarked  that  the 
only  thing,  so  far  as  he  knew,  that  could  be  said 
in  favor  of  the  man  was  that  at  the  sight  of  a 
woman  his  heart  failed  him.  He  could  not  shoot 
the  President  in  the  presence  of  so  much  weak 
ness  and  love  and  tenderness. 

Mr.  Davidge  then  quoted  from  "Macbeth"  the 
lines  setting  forth  that  Duncan 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 

Hath  borne  his  faculties  so  meek,  hath  been 
So  clear  in  his  great  office,  that  his  virtues 
Will  plead,  like  angels  trumpet-tongued,  against 
The  deep  damnation  of  his  taking  off; 
And  pity,  like  a  naked  new-born  babe, 
Striding  the  blast,  or  heaven's  cherubim,  hors'd 
Upon  the  sightless  couriers  of  the  air, 
Shall  blow  the  horrid  deed  in  every  eye, 
That  tears  shall  drown  the  wind. 

As  Mr.  Davidge  recited  these  lines,  the  trag 
edian  Rossi,  who  occupied  a  seat  at  the  Govern 
ment  table,  nodded  approvingly. 

Let  us  hope,  continued  Mr.  Davidge,  that  a  simi 
lar  sentiment  to  that  attributed  by  the  great  master 
of  moral  nature  to  Macbeth  stirred,  to  some  ex 
tent,  the  heart  of  this  devil. 

Mr.  Davidge  then  described  the  efforts  of  Gui- 
teau  to  nerve  himself  up  to  the  act.  This  lunatic 
had  to  screw  up  as  with  a  jackscrew  "  his  courage 
to  the  sticking  point."  He  fired,  continued  Mr. 
Davidge,  at  the  back  of  your  chief  and  my  chief. 
He  fired  at  the  back  of  that  man,  from  his  British 
bulldog  pistol,  the  bullet  that  went  clear  through 
the  spine.  "The  falcon,  towering  in  his  pride  of 
place,  was,  by  a  mousing  owl  hawked  at  and  killed." 
This  gentle,  kindly,  illustrious  chief,  who  had 
bared  his  breast  to  the  bullets  of  the  enemy,  lived 
to  die  by  a  bullet  fired  treacherously  into  his  back. 
The  prisoner  was  afraid  of  the  mob.  What  is  a 
mob  ?  It  is  simply  the  outward  expression  of  the 
passion  and  sentiment  of  the  people.  I  am  no 
mob  man,  but  I  never  yet  knew  the  mob,  however 
35 


4io 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


much  to  be  apprehended,  that  had  not  behind  it 
the  highest  form  of  human  passion  and  human 
sentiment. 

Prisoner ;  I  went  to  jail  to  protect  myself  until  I 
had  a  hearing.  I  am  getting  a  hearing  now,  and 

O  O  O  O  ' 

the  people  are  satisfied. 

There  never  was  a  time,  continued. Mr.  Davidge, 
when,  if  the  sentiment  of  this  country  and  of  other 
civilized  countries  had  been  given  full-  vent,  it 
would  not  have  torn  this  wretch  into  shreds  and 
atoms. 

The  Court  at  this  point  took  a  recess. 

After  the  recess  Mr.  Davidge  continued  his 
argument.  He  claimed  that  he  had  established 
beyond  controversy  the  sanity  of  the  prisoner. 
He  claimed  to  have  established  such  sanity  by  the 
consideration  which  the  prisoner  had  shown  for 
Mrs.  Garfield,  by  his  preparations  for  the  execu 
tion  of  the  crime,  by  the  execution  itself  and  by 
the  measures  adopted  by  the  prisoner  himself  to 
secure  his  personal  safety,  first  in  respect  of  the 
mob,  and  next  in  respect  of  the  tribunal  of  justice 
by  the  interposition  of  the  defense  of  insanity. 

It  seemed  to  him  almost  a  mockery  to  discuss 
the  question  of  insanity  in  respect  of  the  prisoner, 
but  he  wished  that  in  the  future  when  this  man 
had  met  his  doom,  no  human  being  should  be  able 
to  say  that  there  was  any  question  in  respect  of 
his  guilt  or  of  the  propriety  of  the  punishment  in 
flicted  upon  him.  He  then  proceeded  to  criticise 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  ^  j 

in  detail  and  ridicule  the  evidence  offered  by  the 
defense  to  prove  the  existence  of  insanity  in  mem 
bers  of  the  Guiteau  family.  He  commented  on  the 
fact  that  in  jail  the  prisoner  was  quiet  and  well 
behaved — the  exception  being  that  when  a  man 
went  there  who  was  to  become  a  witness  in  the 
case  the  prisoner  founvd  it  convenient,  in  view  of 
of  the  exigencies  of  the  case,  to  appear  to  be  a 
madman. 

Prisoner :  I  never  appeared  to  be  a  madman. 
I  never  claimed  to  be  any  more  insane  than  you 
are,  I  never  have  been  since  the  2d  of  July. 

In  the  course  of  his  further  argument,  Mr. 
Davidge  alluded  to  the  prisoner's  wonderful  mem 
ory,  saying  that  he  had  a  memory  of  brass,  of 
which  metal  his  other  qualities  seemed  also  to  be 
composed. 

Prisoner:  That  is  the  first  pun  you  have  made 
to-day,  Davidge ;  you  had  better  repeat  it. 

Mr.  Davidge  proceeded  to  analyze  the  testi 
mony  connected  with  the  prisoner's  attempt  to 
deliver  a  lecture  in  the  Paine  Memorial  Hall,  at 
Boston:  also  that  in  connection  with  the  prisoner's 
dropping  a  little  dog  over  the  stairway  at  Mr. 
Scoville's  summer  house;  also  as  to  the  opinions 
expressed  by  some  witnesses  that  the  prisoner 
was  crazy  or  was  a  fool,  and  he  asked  whether  a 
man  was  to  be  excused  for  crime,  and  such  a 
crime,  because  somebody  thought  him  a  fool  or 
crazy?  Then  he  came  to  what  he  called  the  family 


4!  2  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

branch  of  the  testimony,  referring  to  the  raising  of 
the  axe  by  the  prisoner  upon  Mrs.  Scoville  and 
connecting  that  with  the  prisoner  once  striking  his 
father  on  the  back.  A  more  uniform  life  had 
never  come  under  his  observation.  Its  last  crown 
ing  and  culminating  act  of  wickedness  was  but  the 
verification  of  what  the  Scripture  says:  "As  thou 
sowest  so  shalt  thou  reap." 

Extended  discussion  followed  at  this  point  upon 
permitting  the  prisoner  to  address  the  jury  in 
closing  his  case,  in  the  progress  of  which  Guiteau 
interrupted  saying :  The  American  people  will 
read  the  speech,  and  they  are  greater  than  this 
Court  and  Jury.  Do  not  forget  that,  Mr.  Court 
and  Mr.  Jurymen !  The  American  people  are 
trying  this  case,  and  will,  I  think,  do  me  justice. 
The  American  people  will  get  my  speech  from 
the  Herald.  It  reads  like  an  oration  of  Cicero's. 
It  will  go  thundering  down  the  ages. 

Judge  Cox:  I  would  have  no  objection  to' the 
prisoner's  being  heard  if  he  would  conduct  him 
self  as  any  other  man  or  counsel  would,  in  conform 
ity  to  the  rules  of  propriety.  The  prisoner  has  so 
abused  his  privileges  heretofore,  that  I  do  not 
anticipate  that  he  will  confine  himself  to  the  rules  of 
propriety. 

Prisoner :  That  is  because  I  have  been  abused, 
I  had  to  defend  myself.  I  could  not  lie  down  and 
allow  these  men  to  trample  on  me. 

At  this  point  the  crier,  by  order  of  Judge  Cox, 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


announced  the  adjournment  of  the  Court;  but  the 
prisoner  continued  to  shout,  "I  stand  here  as  a 
man.  I  am  here  as  the  agent  of  the  Deity.  Do  not 
forget  that  God  Almighty  will  take  care  of  me  too." 

As  soon  as  the  prisoner  had  been  placed  in  the 
dock,  on  Friday  morning,  January  I3th,  he  broke 
out  with  the  following  speech:  "In  justice  to  the 
Court,  to  myself  and  to  Mr.  Davidge,  I  want  to 
say  that  I  was  mistaken  in  my  remarks  against 
him.  I  received  a  letter  severely  denouncing  Mr. 
Davidge,  but  on  inquiry  I  find  that  Davidge  is  a 
high-toned  Christian  lawyer,  and  I  withdraw  any 
injurious  remarks  I  made  against  him.  I  still 
maintain  my  opinion  of  Corkhill.  I  am  told  that 
I  am  right  about  Corkhill  and  wrong  about 
Davidge." 

Mr.  Davidge  then  arose  and  proceeded  with  his 
address  to  the  jury,  first  referring  to  the  testimony 
as  to  the  purchase  of  the  pistol.  Passing  on  to 
the  question  whether  the  prisoner,  at  the  time  of 
the  act  had  intelligence  enough  to  know  that  mur 
der  was  against  God's  law,  nature's  law  and  the 
law  of  the  land,  he  analyzed  the  testimony  as  to 
the  eccentricities  and  peculiarities  of  the  prisoner. 
He  might  comment  upon  the  testimony  of  Mrs. 
Scoville  with  some  degree  of  severity,  but  he  was 
not  capable  of  it.  He  recognized  her  relations  to 
the  prisoner,  and  he  therefore  passed  her  testi 
mony  as  he  had  passed  it  by  when  he  declined  to 
cross-examine  her. 
35* 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 


He  proceeded,  however,  to  analyze  the  testi- 
money  of  John  W.  Guiteau.  He  testified  that  the 
prisoner  was  so  bereft  of  reason  that  he  was  ac 
tually  unable  to  draw  up  a  chattel  mortgage.  If 
that  were  a  test  of  reason  he,  Mr.  Davidge,  could 
not  pass  it,  for,  after  his  long  practice  of  the  law, 
he  would  also  have  to  ask  guidance  in  the  draw 
ing  up  of  a  chattel  mortgage  in  Richmond  or  New 
York.  He  quoted  some  of  the  answers  of  this 
witness  in  cross-examination  ;  that  he  believed  the 
prisoner's  case  was  one  of  demonism,  that  he  was 
possessed  of  the  devil,  that  before  God  he  was 
responsible  for  his  acts.  He  also  read  and  com 
mented  upon  the  testimony  as  to  the  quarrel  be 
tween  witness  and  the  prisoner  in  the  witness' 
office,  in  Boston,  and  brought  out  again  with  great 
effect  the  explanation  given  by  the  witness,  in 
reply  to  Mr.  Scoville,  of  what  he  meant  by  saying 
that  he  believed  his  brother  was  possessed  by 
the  devil. 

This  Guiteau  family  is  a  respectable  family,  a 
family  of  tone  and  character.  They  have  made 
their  mark  wherever  they  have  gone.  The  mis 
take  committed  by  the  family  is  in  undertaking  to 
protect  and  defend  this  man.  All  families  are 
liable  in  the  course  of  nature  to  produce  bad  men 
and  wicked  men,  and  bad  women  and  wicked 
women,  and  the  course  —  the  Roman  course  —  that 
this  family  ought  to  pursue  would  be  to  denounce 
this  wretch  as  having  sinned  against  law,  against 


ASSASSAV  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD, 


God,  against  nature  itself,  and  offer  him  as  a  sac 
rifice  on  the  altar  of  his  country. 

Mr.  Davidge  characterized  the  evidence  of  the 
defense  as  vague  and  sloppy  rubbish,  but  declared 
that  some  strange  beams  of  light  had  filtered 
through  the  darkness  in  respect  to  the  prisoner's 
moral  nature.  It  had  crept  in  incidentally  that  he 
had,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  struck  his  father 
behind  his  back,  and  that  at  the  age  of  thirty-five 
he  had  raised  an  axe  against  a  woman,  and  that 
woman  his  sister,  and  that  sister  his  hostess,  whose 
hospitality  he  was  enjoying  at  the  time. 

Right  here  the  most  remarkable  incident  of  this 
trial  took  place.  The  prisoner  was  put  upon  the 
stand  because  the  theory  on  which  I  have  been 
commenting  had  absolutely  broken  down.  What 
was  the  result?  No  man  in  this  court-room  and 
no  man  out  of  this  court-room  who  read  his  testi 
mony  entertains  any  longer,  if  he  entertained 
before,  the  slightest  doubt  in  respect  to  the  abso 
lute  sanity  and  responsibility  of  this  man.  There 
is  no  longer  any  darkness. 

Mr.  Davidge,  in  the  course  of  his  address, 
speaking  incidentally  of  the  horror,  disgust  and 
loathing  with  which  the  assassination  of  the  Presi 
dent  had  been  regarded  by  all  Christendom,  the 
prisoner  exclaimed:  ''That  was  true  in  July,  sir; 
but  it  is  not  true  now.  It  is  just  the  other  way." 
So  an  allusion  to  the  prisoner's  lecturing  for 
money  brought  out  the  denial  :  "  That  is  false.  I 


4i  6  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

took  to  lecturing  to  serve  the  Lord."  And  a 
reference  to  Moody  as  a  theologian  led  him  to  ex 
claim  :  "  Moody  was  an  evangelist  and  I  was  a 
theologian.  There  is  no  connection  between  the 
two  offices."  Referring  to  the  testimony  of  Rev. 
Dr.  MacArthur  and  to  the  incident  of  the  pris 
oner's  being  supplied  with  money  by  his  wife,  who 
was  then  at  service,  the  prisoner  said :  "  That  is 
false  ;  she  was  never  worth  a  cent."  He  also  con 
tradicted  several  other  points  in  Dr.  MacArthur's 
testimony,  which  led  Mr.  Davidge  to  say  to  the 
jury :  This  rascal  says  he  did  not  do  this.  Which 
do  you  believe,  the  man  of  God,  the  minister  of 
the  Holy  Gospel,  or  the  prisoner  in  the  dock  ? 

Mr.  Davidge  went  on  in  the  further  analysis  of 
the  testimony  and  said :  He  was  sane  enough  for 
all  purposes.  It  is  only  when  his  hand  is  red, 
when  his  fingers  are  dripping  with  blood,  and 
when  the  law  claims  him  as  a  sacrifice  on  the  altar 
of  justice  that  we  first  hear  any  claim  whatever 
of  his  insanity. 

Alluding  to  Shaw's  testimony  as  to  the  conver 
sation  about  Wilkes  Booth  and  the  assassination 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  Mr.  Davidge  said  that  the  prisoner 
had  the  ambition  of  the  youth  who  fired  the  Ephe- 
sian  dome,  and  who  outlived  in  fame  the  pious 
fool  who  reared  it. 

This  wretch,  too,  he  said,  was  after  immortality, 
and  he  had  secured  for  himself  an  evil  eminence 
and  an  evil  immortality.  Referring  to  the  pris- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  ,j  ~ 

oner's  Inter- Ocean  scheme  Mr.  Davidge  treated 
that  as  a  proof  of  his  sanity. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  prisoner,  "  they  have  been  run 
ning  that  paper  on  my  brains  ever  since,  and  they 
have  got  rich  on  it,  too.  The  paper  was  not  worth 
a  cent  until  I  put  my  brains  into  the  concern." 

Mr.  Davidge  continued :  What  we  have  mainly 
to  do  with  in  that  enterprise  is  the  audacity  of  the 
undertaking.  This  crime  is  in  keeping  with 
the  Inter-  Ocean  enterprise ;  in  keeping  with  the 
Oneida  Community ;  in  keeping  with  the  Theo- 
crat;  in  keeping  with  the  idea  that  he  could 
"  star  "  the  country  as  a  lecturer,  because  Moody 
and  Sankey  could  do  the  same  thing ;  in  keeping 
with  the  idea  that  Providence  specially  protected 
him  when  the  Narraefansett  was  burned  on  Lonof 

o  o 

Island  Sound ;  in  keeping  with  the  idea  that  he 
was  led  by  inspiration  to  go  to  the  Oneida  Com 
munity  ;  in  keeping  with  the  idea  that  the  great 
God  inspired  him  to  leave  that  Community ;  in 
keeping  with  the  grand  idea  that  on  this  earth 
there  is  but  one  errand  central  figure,  and  that  his 

O  C!> 

name  is  Charles  J.  Guiteau. 

"Thank  you,  sir,"  shouted  the  prisoner;  that  is 
the  best  thing  that  you  have  ever  said.  That  is  what 
the  American  people  are  beginning  to  say  too." 
If  you  saw  some  of  the  letters  I  am  receiving  you 
would  say  so  too.  I  am  the  brain  of  this  business. 
I  am  running  this  thing  here.  And  I  say  that, 
too,  without  any  egotism  at  all." 


4i  8  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

Mr.  Davidge  then  adverted  to  the  testimony  of 
Mrs.  Dunmire,  the  divorced  wife  of  the  prisoner, 
commenting  on  the  fact  that  the  defense  had  not 
cross-examined  her  as  to  the  incidents  which  led 
her  to  the  belief  that  the  prisoner  was  sane. 

Mr.  Davidge  then  referred  to  the  testimony  of 
the  medical  experts,  first  taking  up  the  evidence 
of  Dr.  Spitzka.  Spitzka,  the  moral  insanity  man, 
had  said  that  the  prisoner  was  a  moral  monstro 
sity;  but,  further,  that  he  had  no  doubt  that  the 
prisoner  apprehended  the  difference  between  right 
and  wrong.  Spitzka's  testimony  brought  the 
prisoner  within  the  reach  of  law  and  punishment. 

In  alluding  to  Dr.  Spitzka's  statement  that  the 
prisoner's  tongue  deviated  to  one  side,  Mr. 
Davidge  related  the  fact  that  the  medical  experts 
at  a  meeting  at  Willard's  hotel  examined  each 
other's  tongues,  and  it  was  found  that  of  the  half- 
dozen  present  only  two  could  put  their  tongues 
out  straight. 

There  had  been  upward  of  twenty  medical  ex 
perts  summoned  on  the  part  of  the  defense,  men 
whose  names  were  household  words,  who  were 
noted  in  the  particular  department  of  science  to 
which  they  had  elevated  themselves.  They  had 
come  here,  had  stayed  here  day  after  day,  and  ex 
amined  the  prisoner  in  the  jail  and  had  sat  in  the 
Court-room  with  note-book  and  pencil  to  hear  him 
testify.  Strange  as  it  may  appear,  all  these  experts, 
after  the  examination  of  the  prisoner,  had  vanished 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


419 


like  ghosts  before  the  dawn  of  day.  Not  one  of 
them  had  taken  the  stand  to  testify  that  this  man 
was  insane.  But  as  the  failure  to  call  any  of 
them  would  have  been  too  glaring  a  confession 
of  weakness,  the  defense  had  resorted  to  the  very 
transparent  device  of  putting  some  of  them  on 
the  stand  and  interrogating  them  in  respect  to  a 
hypothetical  case  which  meant  nothing. 

He  commended  the  testimony  of  the  expert 
witnesses  for  the  prosecution  and  predicted  that 
for  all  time  that  testimony  would  be  resorted  to 
as  indicating  the  character  of  the  disease  of  in 
sanity. 

Mr.  Davidge  continued:  We  have  uncovered 
his  moral  nature.  We  have  shown  that  in  religion 
he  is  a  hypocrite,  in  law  a  pettifogger  and  a 
shyster,  and  in  all  things  a  swindler,  an  impostor 
and  a  cheat.  Then  came  the  light  of  science,  and 
science  brands  on  his  forehead,  so  that  the  whole 
world  may  see  it,  and  read  it,  and  know  it,  the 
word  "Sane."  I  have  now  done  with  the  first  de 
partment  of  this  case.  The  second  department  is 
that  it  was  in  consequence  of  what  this  prisoner 
calls  a  Divine  pressure  that  he  committed  this  act. 
Where  he  writes  the  word  "God"  we  know  that 
the  word  "Devil"  ought  to  be  written,  and 
where  he  writes  "Divine,"  if  we  write  what  his 
own  brother  says  ought  to  be  written,  "  Santanic," 
it  is  true.  Let  me  read  from  James  I.,  14,  15,  16: 
— "Let  no  man  say,  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am 


420 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU. 


tempted  of  God,  for  God  cannot  be  tempted  with 
evil,  neither  tempteth  he  any  man ;  but  every  man 
is  tempted  when  he  is  drawn  away  of  his  own  lust 
and  enticed.  Then  when  the  lust  has  conceived, 
it  bringeth  forth  sin;  and  sin,  when  it  is  finished, 
bringeth  forth  death."  This  is  a  sufficient  com 
ment  ! 

Mr.  Davidge  went  on  to  quote  from  the  pris 
oner's  own  testimony  bearing  on  his  so-called  in 
spiration,  prefacing  it  with  the  remark  that  it  was 
enoup-h  to  make  a  man's  blood  curdle.  "At  the 

o 

end  of  two  weeks,"  the  prisoner  had  testified,  "my 
mind  was  thoroughly  fixed  as  to  the  necessity  of 
the  President's  removal  and  the  divinity  of  the 
inspiration." 

Prisoner :  Making  up  my  mind  was  the  result 
of  my  prayers. 

Mr.  Davidge:  Let  me  go  on.  I  will  hang  him  by 
his  own  .testimony.  The  doctors  have  all  told  you 
that  an  insane  delusion  does  not  come  from  within, 
but  from  without ;  that  the  insane  person  hears  a 
voice  or  sees  a  spectral  finger  on  the  wall,  but  here 
you  have  the  germ  of  crime  within  the  mind  of 
the  man.  You  have  the  act  originating  within  and 
not  forced  upon  the  party  from  without. 

Mr.  Davidge  went  on  to  quote  from  the  testi 
mony  of  Mr.  Reynolds,  narrating  his  interview 
with  the  prisoner  in  the  jail  on  the  i4th  of  July. 
He  dwelt  particularly  on  the  use  by  the  prisoner 
of  the  word  "  assassination."  This  the  prisoner 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


denied,  as  Mr.  Davidge  was  reading  it,  and  said 
he  had  always  spoken  of  it  as  a  "  removal,"  not  an 
"assassination."  When  Mr.  Davidge  read  the  re 
mark  by  the  prisoner  to  the  effect  that  Conkling, 
and  Grant,  and  Logan,  and  such  men  would  make 
themselves  known  as  his  friends,  the  prisoner  said, 
"  Yes,  and  they  are  my  friends  to-day." 

Another  quotation  was  :  "  I  thought  my  friends 
would  come  to  see  me  by  hundreds."  When  that 
was  read  the  prisoner  added  :  "  Yes,  and  they  are 
coming  to-day,  sir." 

In  concluding  his  comments  upon  his  testimony, 
Mr.  Davidge  said  :  Now,  one  word,  and  a  very 
short  word.  I  told  you  in  the  beginning  that  I  did 
not  come  here  to  make  a  set  speech;  I  told  you 
that  I  came  here  to  help  as  far  as  I  could,  and  to 
help  honestly,  a  jury  of  my  country  in  the  dis 
charge  of  an  important  and  solemn  duty.  I  be 
gan  my  remarks  without  an  exordium,  and  I  close 
them  without  peroration,  except  to  say  to  you  that 
your  countrymen  and  Christendom  are  waiting  for 
your  verdict.  I  thank  you,  gentlemen,  for  the  at 
tention  you  have  given  me." 

Prisoner:  And  I  thank  you,  Mr.  Davidge.  That 
is  a  very  light  speech.  I  hope  Porter  will  go  light, 
too.  You  had  better  see  General  Arthur,  Mr, 
Porter,  before  you  begin  to  talk.  I  wrote  him  a 
note  on  this  matter  the  other  day. 

The  Court  at  5  minutes  past  3  o'clock  adjourned. 

The  morning's  proceedings  on  Saturday,  Janu- 


422  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

ary  i4th,  were  opened  by  the  prisoner,  who,  as 
soon  as  he  had  entered  the  dock,  exclaimed :  "  I 
signed  twenty-five  checks  yesterday  made  payable 
to  my  order  representing  $15,000.  I  suppose  that 
some  of  them  are  good.  I  do  not  wish  any  one 
to  send  checks  that  are  not  good.  We  have  re 
ceived  two  or  three  that  are  worthless.  Let  the 
people  send  good  checks  or  none.  I  do  my  own 
banking  business,  and  I  want  the  checks  made 
payable  to  my  order. 

The  Court  stated  that  he  had  been  informed 
that  the  prisoner  was  preparing  an  address  to  the 
jury.  He  would  be  loath,  in  a  capital  case,  to  deny 
any  prisoner  an  opportunity  to  present  a  proper 
argument  in  his  own  behalf.  But  he  was  per 
suaded  that  any  address  from  this  prisoner  would 
partake  of  the  character  of  his  former  testimony 
and  interruptions ;  that  it  would  be  a  rehash  of 
his  testimony.  No  person  had  a  right  to  do  that. 
It  would  be  grossly  improper  to  permit  such  testi 
mony  to  go  before  the  jury. 

Prisoner,  wildly :  I  represent  myself,  and  I  take 
exception  to  that  ruling.  Let  the  record  show 
that  I  appear  as  my  own  counsel,  and  I  propose 
to  address  the  jury.  I  say  it  is  an  outrage  on 
American  jurisprudence,  and  after  I  have  been 
heard  and  my  speech  published  your  Honor  will 
see  that  it  is.  I  have  an  encomium  upon  your 
Honor  in  my  address  to  the  jury.  I  hope  that  it 
will  not  be  necessary  to  withdraw  it.  If  it  is  neces- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


423 


sary  your  Honor  will  go  down  to  future  ages  with 
a  black  stain  upon  your  name,  and  I  tell  you  so  to 
your  face. 

Mr.  Reed  then  rose  to  address  the  jury  on  behalf 
of  the  prisoner.  He  commenced  by  paying  a  com 
pliment  to  the  jury  for  the  seriousness,  solemnity 
and  care  which  had  characterized  it  during  this  long 
trial — a  trial  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  crimi 
nal  jurisprudence.  He  should  not  endeavor  to 
make  any  statement  of  the  evidence  or  to  draw  a 
gilded  picture  of  any  scene,  but  he  would  simply 
talk  with  them  as  between  neighbors. 

The  story  of  this  awful  offense,  this  offense,  un 
paralleled  for  atrocity  could  have  been  told  to  the 
jury  in  ten  minutes.  No  one  connected  with  the 
defense,  no  friend  of  the  prisoner — and  he  had 
two  or  three  friends  left  on  the  face  of  the  earth — 

"Yes,"  the  prisoner  broke  in,  "and  the  Ameri 
can  people  are  coming  over  solidly  every  day.  Do 
not  forget  it." 

—would  dispute  or  had  disputed,  Mr.  Reed  con 
tinued,  the  fact  that  he  fired  the  fatal  shot.  The 
story  could,  therefore,  have  been  told  to  the  jury 
in  ten  minutes,  and  yet  Mr.  Davidge  had  occupied 
two  days  trying  to  convince  the  jury  that  when 
the  prisoner  fired  the  fatal  shot,  reason  was 
enthroned  on  her  accustomed  seat. 

When,  on  that  dread  morning  of  the  2d  of  July, 
a  bein^  in  human  form,  having  ears  to  hear  and 

o  o 

eyes  to  see,  lounged  about  the  depot  waiting  for 


424  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GU2TEAU, 

his  victim,  got  behind  him  and  fired  two  bullets 
into  the  President's  back,  the  country  was  startled 
— nay  the  civilized  world — and  the  first  expression 
was  "  Horrible!"  The  next  thought  was,  "The 
man  cannot  be  sane ;  it  must  be  the  act  of  a 
lunatic." 

The  dead  President  was  his — Mr.  Reed's — 
friend.  He  knew  him  well,  and  loved  him  well. 
No  eulogy  of  him  could  be  too  glowing,  no  pane 
gyric  too  great.  He  would  say  "  Amen"  to  it  all, 
for  he  knew  him  and  he  loved  him.  Mr.  Porter 
had  read  to  the  jury  very  impressively  the  letter 
written  by  Mr.  Garfield  to  Judge  Payne,  of  Cleve 
land,  complimenting  him  on  his  charge  in  the  trial 
of  a  case  where  insanity  had  been  set  up ;  but  he, 
Mr.  Reed,  believed  that  if  the  spirit  of  the  dead 
President  could  appear  before  the  jury  to-day  he 
would  tell  them  in  language  more  glowing  and 
more  eloquent,  because  it  would  be  from  above, 
"  Set  him  free  ;  he  cannot  have  been  sane." 

He  reminded  the  jury  of  the  act  of  Charlotte 
Corday  in  poniarding  in  his  bath  Marat,  then  the 
chief  man  of  the  French  nation,  and  how  she  was 
guillotined  in  four  or  seven  days  afterwards.  The 
picture  of  that  fair  French  girl  could  be  seen  in 
the  Corcoran  Art  Gallery,  looking  through  the 
bars  of  her  prison,  appealing  to  posterity,  insane. 
Her  execution  had  disgraced  the  name  of  the 
French  nation.  He  also  referred  to  the  cases  of 
Lawrence  who  had  fired  at  President  Jackson; 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


Hadfield,  who  had  fired  at  George  III.  of  Eng 
land,  and  Oxford,  who  had  fired  at  Queen  Vic 
toria  ;  in  all  of  which  cases  the  prisoners  had  been 
found  not  guilty  by  reason  of  insanity,  and  had 
been  sent  to  insane  asylums.  He  drew  a  parallel 
between  the  case  of  Oxford  and  the  present 
case.  Oxford,  like  Guiteau,  had  bought  a  pistol 
and  practised  with  it.  He  had  been  deliberate, 
his  intention  had  been  fixed,  yet  he  had  been 
acquitted.  He  also  pointed  out  the  similarity  ex 
isting  between  this  case  and  the  case  of  William 
Lawrence,  who  shot  at  President  Jackson. 

Branching  off  to  the  discussion  of  the  instruc 
tions  of  the  Court,  Mr.  Reed  called  the  attention 
of  the  jury  to  the  wording  of  the  instruction  defin 
ing  the  test  of  responsibility  for  an  act  to  be 
"whether  he  knew  the  difference  between  right 
and  wrong  in  respect  of  that  act."  Mr.  Davidge, 
he  asserted,  had  repeated  and  repeated  that  the 
test  was  "whether  he  knew  the  difference  between 
right  and  wrong,"  and  had  failed  .to  quote  the 
remainder  of  the  instruction. 

You  twelve  men,  continued  Mr.  Reed,  sitting 
there  to  day  on  the  facts  and  the  evidence  are 
superior  to  all  powers  on  the  earth.  *  *  You 
and  you  alone  are  supreme  on  the  question  of 
fact.  You  and  you  alone  are  to  say  what  the  evi 
dence  is,  what  witnesses  shall  be  believed,  what 
disbelieved  and  what  weight  shall  be  given  to  the 
testimony  of  one  witness  or  another.  Your  con- 


426  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

sciences,  under  your  oaths  to  your  God,  are  to  be 
your  only  guide.  If  any  one  man  among'  you, 
when  he  shall  have  seriously  and  solemnly  con- 
side-red  this  case  in  the  jury-room,  shall  feel  within 
himself,  "  I  have  a  fair,  honest  doubt  whether  this 
man  was  sane  at  the  time,"  it  is  the  duty  of  that 
juror  before  his  Maker  to  say,  "I  cannot  find  him 
guilty."  If  one  man  so  feels  the  other  eleven 
have  no  right  to  dictate  to  him. 

Lunatics  were  found  in  Jerusalem  eighteen  hun 
dred  years  ago.  It  is  no  new  thing  to  find  a  man 
a  lunatic,  to  find  him  an  object  of  the  deep,  con 
tinuing  pity  of  his  fellow-men.  When  your 
Saviour  and  mine  was  on  earth  to  save  men,  they 
brought  to  him  those  who  were  sick  of  all  manner 
of  diseases — lunatics,  those  possessed  of  devils. 
What  did  he  do?  Did  he  say,  "Hang  him,  kill 
him,  put  him  to  death  ?"  No,  but  the  Divine  com 
passion  took  them  to  Him  and  healed  them.  He 
healed  them,  but  this  prosecution  would  say,  "Put 
him  to  death." 

Mr.  Reed  then  went  into  an  exhaustive  review 
of  the  prisoner's  life,  picturing  him  as  a  good, 
Christian  youth.  He  referred  to  the  testimony 
of  Mr.  North  as  to  the  quarrel  between  Charles 
Guiteau  and  his  father,  when  the  former,  who  was 
eighteen  years  of  age,  struck  the  old  man  in  the 
back.  That  striking  of  his  father  in  the  back,  Mr. 
Reed  proceeded,  was  not  from  depravity,  but  from 
disease  for  which  he  was  not  responsible.  That 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


427 


was  the  only  instance  of  violence  on  the  part  of 
the  prisoner  down  to  the  incident  of  raising  the 
axe  on  his  sister. 

"  And  that  does  not  happen  to  be  true,"  said 
the  prisoner. 

Mr.  Reed:  Even  his  own  sister 

"  That  is  all  bosh,  too,"  said  the  prisoner. 

Mr.  Reed:  When  she  testified  that  he  raised 
the  axe  at  her  it  was  charged  by  him,  while  she 
was  on  the  stand,  as  being  in  substance  a  lie. 
Why  was  that?  Because  at  that  time  memory 
had  strayed  away  and  left  him  for  the  moment. 
It  came  kindly  back  again.  Does  any  man,  liv 
ing  to  be  thirty-seven  years  of  age,  leading  a 
blameless,  irreproachable  life,  become  bad,  violent, 
immoral,  corrupt,  depraved,  unless  from  disease 
here?  (tapping  his  brow). 

Mr.  Reed  went  on  to  quote  from  the  testimony 
of  Hubbard,  who  knew  the  prisoner  at  the  Oneida 
Community,  and  who  said  that  when  anything  was 
said  which  he,  the  prisoner,  did  not  like,  it  would 
"rile"  him,  and  he*would  gesticulate  wildly,  talk 
in  a  mysterious  manner  and  sit  for  hours  alone. 
Mr.  Reed  argued  that  this  was  one  of  the  com 
monest  forms  and  evidences  of  insanity. 

Mr.  Reed  then  proceeded  to  read  and  comment 
upon  the  letter  written  by  the  prisoner  to  his  father 
when  he  left  the  Oneida  Community  sixteen  years 
ago,  in  which  he  says:  "I  came  to  New  York  in 
obedience  to  what  I  believe  to  be  the  will  of  God, 


428  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

*  *     *     with  the  Bible  for  my  text-book  and  the 
Holy  Ghost  for  my  schoolmaster,  I  can   pursue 
my  studies.     *     *     *     I  will  do  all  that  in  me  lies 
to    extend   the    sovereignty  of  Jesus    Christ   by 
placing  at  his   disposal  a  powerful  daily  paper. 

*  *     *     I  claim  that  I  am   a  member  of  Jesus 
Christ  &  Co.,  the  very  ablest  and  strongest  firm  in 
the  universe.     *     *     *     Therefore  I    say  boldly 
that  I   claim   inspiration."     Such   expressions   as 
these   are  to   all    candid    men  unmistakable  evi 
dence  of  insanity. 

He  went  on  to  argue  that,  since  the  prisoner 
shot  the  President,  he  had  daily  declared  that  the 
power  of  God  was  around  him  and  would  protect 
him  from  harm.  Was  that  a  new  idea  in  his  mind, 
was  it  manufactured  for  this  case?  No;  he  wrote 
it  sixteen  years  ago. 

The  Court  then  at  half-past  1 2  took  a  recess  for 
half  an  hour. 

After  the  recess  Mr.  Reed  proceeded  with  his 
argument,  reading  the  letter  written  by  the  pris 
oner  to  the  Oneida  Community,  at  the  time  he 
separated  himself  from  it,  and  calling  the  jury's 
attention  to  the  expression  made  use  of  in  the 
document,  that  he  was  "driven  by  God."  What 
sane  man,  asked  Mr.  Reed,  would  make  use  of 
that  expression  ?  Suppose  that  letter  had  been 
presented  to  the  gentlemen  composing  the  jury 
when  the  man  was  not  on  trial  for  any  crime,  and 
their  opinion  had  been  asked,  would  not  every  one 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


of  them  have  said  that  the  man  was  crazy  to  have 
written  such  a  letter? 

Mr.  Reed,  then  passing  on  to  a  review  of  the 
expert  testimony,  commented  on  the  fact  that  the 
government  experts  had  disagreed  on  the  very 
vital  point  as  to  whether  the  prisoner  had  been 
feigning  or  not.  If  the  experts  differed  on  so  vital 
a  point  as  that,  what  was  their  opinion  worth  as  to 
whether  there  was  derangement  in  the  brain  ? 

Visit  the  State  prisons  of  this  country  and  you 
cannot  find  in  the  entire  number  of  convicts  one 
such  face  as  he  has;  one  such  eye.  If  you  can, 
then  it  is  not  the  eye  of  a  criminal,  but  the  eye  of 
a  wreck  along  the  pathway  of  life,  which  he  cer 
tainly  is.  It  needs  no  expert  to  prove  that  he 
is  insane  to-day.  Brain  gone!  gone!  gone! 
gone!  —  reason  leaving  him  never  to  return.  I 
predict  that  if  he  is  put  into  an  insane  asylum 
within  twenty-four  months  he  will  be  a  miserable, 
driveling  idiot.  [A  laugh  from  the  prisoner.] 

The  impression  has  gone  abroad  that  he  is  one 
of  the  keenest  men  on  the  face  of  the  earth  —  a 
marvel  of  keenness  and  intelligence.  I  tell  you 
that  he  is  a  total  intellectual  mental  wreck  on 
every  other  subject  except  this.  All  the  faculties 
of  reason  that  are  left  to  him  are  centred  in  the 
one  idea  that  he  is  the  agent  of  God,  and  when 
ever  anything  touches  his  case  it  is  like  applying 
a  match  to  a  powder  magazine.  He  goes  off.  He 
explodes  like  a  rocket.  He  cannot  talk  connect- 


430 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


edly.  If  you  turn  him  from  that  one  subject,  that 
he  is  the  agent  of  the  Almighty,  he  is  a  failure  and 
a  wreck. 

Mr.  Reed  went  on  to  argue  that,  after  all,  the 
matter  of  the  prisoner's  sanity  was  only  a  guess 
or  an  opinion  of  the  doctors,  and  that,  after  what 
the  public  had  learned  of  the  value  of  such 
opinions  when  the  President  was  lying  wounded 
and  dying,  no  man  should  be  sent  to  the  gallows 
on  their  opinions.  He  also  quoted  from  the  letter 
of  the  prisoner's  father,  written  in  1875  to  Mrs. 
Scoville,  in  which  he  says,  speaking  of  the  pris 
oner,  "  to  my  mind  he  is  a  fit  subject  for  a  lunatic 
asylum."  Mr.  Reed  then  proceeded  to  review  the 
testimony  of  the  witnesses  who  had  considered 
the  prisoner  insane.  Taking  the  testimony  of 
John  A.  Logan  and  Charles  B.  Farwell  in  connec 
tion  with  the  appearance  of  the  prisoner,  could  the 
jury  under  their  oaths  say  that  they  had  no  fair, 
reasonable  doubt  of  his  sanity  at  the  time  he  shot 
the  President?  Mr.  Reed  then  proceeded  to  com 
ment  upon  the  fact  that  Detective  McElfresh  had 
been  summoned  by  the  prosecution,  but  not  ex 
amined,  and  that  Bailey,  the  District-Attorney's 
stenographer,  who  had  taken  down  the  utterances 
of  the  prisoner  had  destroyed  his  notes.  These 
facts  gave  ground  for  grave  suspicion  that  McEl- 
fresh's  testimony  and  Bailey's  notes  would  have 
spoken  in  thunder  tones  in  behalf  of  this  man. 

Mr.  Davidge  said,  continued  Mr.  Reed,  that  the 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  *«  j 

prisoner's  family  ought  to  have  deserted  him  as  a 
wretch — that  they  should  have  cast  him  aside  as  a 
rotten  branch.  A  sister  desert  a  brother  whom 
she  believed,  years  before,  to  be  a  weary,  wander 
ing  boy  !  Desert  him  and  let  him  go  to  the  gal 
lows  ?  Never  !  Shame  on  you  (alluding  and  point 
ing  at  Davidge)  for  such  a  statement !  I  say  that, 
not  only  in  this  life  but  in  the  life  to  come,  God 
will  bless  her  for  her  sisterly  love  and  fidelity. 
Desert  him  !  Would  you  ?  Would  any  man  of 
you  desert  the  brother  or  sister  who  was  in  trouble, 
whom  you  believed  to  be  insane  ?  The  propo 
sition  is  simply  monstrous  and  inhuman. 

Mr.  Davidge  the  day  before  yesterday  praised 
the  sentiments  of  a  mob.  He  said  that  the  mob 
generally  represented  the  best  of  human  passion 
and  sentiment.  I  deny  it.  The  most  illustrious 
incident  in  history  is  one  with  which  you  are  all 
familiar,  when  the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus  was  on 
trial  before  Pilate,  and  to  the  mob  Pilate  said,  "  I 
find  no  fault  in  the  man ;  I  wash  my  hands  of  this 
innocent  man's  blood,"  but  the  mob  cried,  "Away 
with  him ;  away  with  him ;  crucify  him ;  crucify 
him." 

A  sane  man  would  have  reasoned  that  if  he 
killed  President  Garfield  his  successor  would  cer 
tainly  not  give  him  any  office.  What  motive  could 
he  have  had?  No  man  committed  crime  without 
a  motive.  Did  the  prisoner  have  any  motive  that 
could  make  a  sane  man  think  of  such  a  thing? 


43  2  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

Mr.  Reed  then  referred  to  the  evidence  given 
by  Special  Agent  Brooks.  Mr.  Brooks  stated 
that,  when  he  visited  the  prisoner  on  the  morning 
after  the  shooting,  the  prisoner  declared  that  he 
had  enjoyed  the  best  night's  rest  he  had  had  for 
weeks.  Was  that  the  declaration  of  a  sane  man? 
The  poor,  weary  soul,  who  had  been  struggling 
between  reason  and  insanity  up  to  the  commission 
of  an  act,  had  committed  it  and  then  been  at  rest. 
Referring  to  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Reynolds,  who 
had  visited  the  prisoner  in  his  cell  on  the  I4th  of 
July,  he  spoke  of  his  insinuating  himself  there  in 
the  character  of  a  sneak  and  a  spy — as  a  Judas, 
coming  and  kissing  him  as  a  friend.  And  he 
asked  whether  any  sane  man  would  say  that  he 
expected  Senator  Conkling,  General  Grant  and 
General  Lo^an  would  interfere  and  save  him  from 

O 

the  gallows,  especially  for  the  murder  of  a  Presi 
dent? 

Mr.  Reed  also  referred  to  the  fact  that  the 
prisoner  still  believed  that  he  would  be  acquitted, 
and  he  said  that,  if  he  were  sane,  it  would  not  be 
possible  for  him  to  believe  it. 

In  conclusion,  Mr.  Reed  said :  Gentlemen  of 
the  Jury,  you  all  said  when  you  were  sworn  that 
you  would  be  governed  by  the  evidence  and  stand 
up  to  it  without  regard  to  the  effect  it  might  have 
upon  you  and  your  business.  I  adjure  you  keep 
that  oath.  Falter  not  in  the  performance  of  a 
duty  which  shall  save  you  and  this  fair  land  from 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


eternal  disgrace.  I  assert  that  the  conviction  of 
this  man  to  the  gallows,  and  his  execution,  would 
be  an  infamy  beyond  description  —  an  indelible 
stain  on  American  jurisprudence  and  American 
juries.  Think  of  the  scene  if  you  condemn  him 
to  the  gallows.  Though  not  present  in  body  to 
see  the  sight,  you  cannot  but  be  there  in  mind.  If 
such  a  day  shall  ever  come,  and  I  do  not  believe 
it  ever  can  come  under  this  evidence,  think  of  this 
man  brought  out  from  his  cell,  with  the  same  pale 
face  and  the  same  weary,  wandering  eyes,  the 
officers  of  the  law  gathering  around  him,  pinion 
ing  him,  binding  him  with  cords,  so  that  his  mus 
cles  stand  out,  covering  him  with  the  black  hood, 
shutting  out  the  light  of  day  from  him  and  lead 
ing  him  to  the  scaffold. 

Prisoner:  I  would  rather  go  that  way  than  be 
smashed  up  in  the  railroad  cars,  as  some  poor  fel 
lows  were  last  night. 

Mr.  Reed,  continuing:  Think  of  him,  a  lunatic 
condemned  to  the  gallows  —  a  lunatic  whom  the 
Saviour,  if  he  were  on  earth,  would  heal.  The 
picture  is  not  overdrawn.  I  am  very  much  obliged 
to  you  for  your  attention.  I  only  ask  you,  pray 
clo  that  which  shall  not  in  after  years  bring  the 
blush  of  shame  to  your  cheeks. 

Prisoner:  Reed  is  a  good  fellow;  but  I  would 
not  give  a  cent  a  bushel  for  his  rubbish.  If  I 
could  only  have  a  talk  with  that  jury  I  would  give 
them  the  right  theory. 

37 


434 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


The  Court  then,  at  10  minutes  past  3  o'clock, 
adjourned. 

Under  date,  January  i5th,  Guiteau  gave  to  the 
Associated  Press  his  speech,  the  delivery  of  which 
to  the  jury  was  refused  by  Judge  Cox.  It  is  a 
lengthy  document,  much  of  it  being  a  repetition 
of  former  publications. 

The  first  part  of  it  is  almost  identical  with  his 
Christmas  address  to  the  people.  He  says  he  is 
a. patriot.  Washington  and  Grant  were  patriots. 
By  their  valor  and  success  they  won  the  admi 
ration  of  mankind.  "  To-day,"  he  continues,  "  I 
suffer  in  bonds  as  a  patriot  because  I  had  the 
inspiration  and  nerve  to  unite  a  great  political 
party.  Admitting  that  the  late  President  died 
from  the  shot,  which  I  deny  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
still  the  circumstances  attending  the  shooting 

o  o 

liquidate  the  presumption  of  malice  either  in  law 
or  in  fact.  Without  the  Deity's  pressure  I  never 
should  have  sought  to  remove  the  President. 
This  pressure  destroyed  my  free  agency.  In 
shooting  the  President  I  deny  that  I  violated  any 
law,  human  or  divine." 

Guiteau  says  he  is  pleased  with  Arthur,  and 
quotes  from  the  New  York  Herald 'that,  if  the  first 
two  months  of  Garfield's  administration  under  the 
inspiration  of  Elaine,  be  compared  with  the  first 
two  of  Arthur's,  the  comparison  is  in  Arthur's 
favor.  He  speaks  of  the  attempts  made  upon 
his  life,  but  the  Deity  protected  him.  He  then 


ASSASSW  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


sketches  his  life,  using  the  sketch  contained  in  his 
Christmas  greeting,  and  says  :  "  I  have  always 
been  a  lover  of  the  Lord,  and  whether  I  live  one 
year  or  thirty  I  am  his." 

"  I  presume  I  shall  live  to  be  President.  Some 
people  think  I  am  as  good  a  man  as  the  President 
now.  General  Arthur  is  a  good  man  every  way. 
I  happen  to  know  him  well.  I  was  with  him  con 
stantly  in  New  York  during  the  canvass.  So  with 
General  Grant,  Conkling  and  the  rest  of  those 
men.  They  have  not  taken  an  active  part  in  my 
defense  because  it  would  not  be  proper." 

The  speech  next  sketches  the  life  of  the  Saviour 
and  St.  Paul,  and  adds:  "For  eighteen  centuries 
no  men  have  exerted  such  a  tremendous  influence 
on  the  civilization  of  the  race  as  the  despised 
Galilean  and  his  great  Apostle.  They  did  their 
work  and  left  the  result  with  *the  Almighty  Fath 
er.  And  so  must  all  inspired  men.  * 
Take  my  own  case.  When  the  pressure  to  re 
move  the  President  came  on  me,  I  spent  two 
weeks  in  prayer  to  make  sure  of  the  Deity's  will. 
Thus  far  the  Deity  has  fathered  the  act  to  my 
entire  satisfaction.  I  put  up  my  life  on  the  Deity's 
inspiration,  and  I  have  not  come  to  grief  yet,  and 
I  have  no  idea  I  shall,  because  I  do  not  think  I  am 
destined  to  be  shot  or  hung.  But  that  is  a  matter 
for  the  Deity  to  pass  on,  and  not  me.  What 
ever  the  mode  of  my  exit  from  this  world,  I 
have  no  doubt  but  my  name  and  work  will  go 


A  ->£  .  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

thundering  down  the  ages  ;  but  woe  unto  the  men 
that  kill  me  privately  or  judicially." 

Guiteau  then  goes  on  to  tell  of  the  hard  time 
he  had  in  serving  the  Lord  and  preaching  the 
gospel  and  continues :  "  I  spent  three  years  in 
this  business  and  received  nothing  but  poverty 
and  contempt  for  my  services  and  trouble.  But  I 
expect  the  Deity  will  take  care  of  me  hereafter  on 
that  account." 

Taking  up  the  political  situation,  Guiteau  details 
his  well-known  views  about  the  danger  of  civil 
war.  Things  seemed  to  be  going  from  bad  to 
worse  under  Garfield's  leadership,  and  Guiteau 
foresaw  another  civil  war.  After  two  weeks  of 
earnest  prayer,  he  decided  that  the  Deity  called 
him  to  remove  the  President,  and  he  began  prepa 
rations.  An  opportunity  came  and  he  shot  him. 
There  was  a  special  providence  in  his  dying  in 
New  Jersey,  for,  says  Guiteau  :  "  Should  this  jury 
condemn  me  to  be  hung,  which  is  hardly  possible, 
in  view  of  the  facts  appearing  in  this  trial,  the 
Deity  has  probably  fixed  the  law  so  that  their 
verdict  cannot  be  legally  enforced." 

"  Providence  and  I  saved  the  nation,  and  why 
should  not  I  be  a  hero  and  the  equal  of  Washing 
ton  and  Lincoln  and  Grant? 

"If  there  be  in  this  assembly  any  dear  friend  of 
Garfield's,  to  him  I  say  that  Guiteau's  love  to  Gar- 
field  was  not  less  than  his.  If,  then,  that  friend 
demand  why  Guiteau  removed  Garfield,  this  is 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


437 


Guiteau's  answer :  Not  that  Guiteau  loved  Gar- 
field  less,  but  he  loved  his  country  more.  Had 
you  rather  that  Garfield  were  living  and  die  in 
war  than  that  Garfield  were  dead  to  live  in  peace  ? 
No  ;  as  Guiteau  loved  Garfield,  Guiteau  weeps  for 
him ;  as  he  was  fortunate,  Guiteau  rejoices  at  it ; 
as  he  was  a  good  man,  Guiteau  honors  him ;  but 
by  the  Deity's  inspiration  Guiteau  removed  Gar- 
field  for  the  good  of  his  country.  • 

"  The  prosecution  have  introduced  certain  dis 
reputable  witnesses — to  wit.,  one  Reynolds ;  to 
wit,  one  Shaw ;  to  wit,  one  English,  and  others 
like  them."  These  witnesses,  Guiteau  says,  are 
hardly  worth  his  notice.  He  then  goes  on  to  re 
view  some  of  the  evidence,  and  calls  the  interview 
with  Detective  Brooks  a  special  providence  in  his 
favor.  "The  issue  is:  Who  fired  that  shot — the 
Deity  or  me  ?  Had  I  fired  it  on  my  own  personal 
account,  no  punishment  would  be  too  quick  or  too 
severe  for  me,  and  this  is  why  I  protected  myself 
by  going  to  jail  and  having  the  national  troops 
ordered  out." 

The  prosecution,  Guiteau  says,  made  a  great 
flourish  with  their  experts.  "The  only  insanity  in 
this  case  was  what  these  experts  call  transitory 
mania,  i.  e.,  the  Abraham  style  of  insanity.  There 
are  thirty-eight  cases  of  Abrahamic  insanity  in  the 
Bible,  i.  e.,  of  illegal  killing  resulting  from  the  pos 
session  of  transitory  mania  by  Divine  authority. 

"I  am  in  receipt  of  a  large  mail,"  Guiteau  con- 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU> 


tinues,  "  representing  the  progressive  thought  of 
the  nation."  He  then  gives  selections  from  his 
correspondence,  leading  off  with  a  telegram  from 
Boston  : 

"All  Boston  sympathizes  with  you.  You  ought  to  be  Presi 
dent. 

"  A  HOST  OF  ADMIRERS." 

A  Chicago  lawyer,  under  date  of  December  30, 
writes:  "The  American  people  delight  in  so  striking 
an  evidence  of  pluck  and  sagacity,  and  will  surely 
sustain  you."  A  letter  from  South  Pueblo,  Colo 
rado,  contains  this  sentence:  "Ten  thousand  citi 
zens  of  the  Centennial  State  hail  you  as  a  martyr  to 
the  cause  of  human  freedom."  One  from  Wisconsin 
says:  "What  a  pity  that  a  republican  form  of 
government  allows  you  to  suffer  for  an  act  you 
surely  intended  for  its  benefit." 

"  On  June  1  6th,  two  weeks  before  the  President 
was  shot,  I  used  these  words  in  an  address  to  the 
American  people: 

"  'In  the  President's  madness  he  has  wrecked  the 
once  grand  old  Republican  party  and  for  this  he 
dies.'  When  I  wrote  these  words  I  had  been  in  a 
mania  for  thirty  days.  I  was  in  a  reverie  or  trance. 
In  the  same  address  I  used  these  words  :  'I  cannot 
render  my  feelings  as  Booth  or  Jefferson  could, 
but  I  will  do  it  in  my  humble  way.'  I  am  supposed, 
for  the  moment,  to  recover  from  the  mania.  I  think 
what  the  public  will  say  when  they  find  the  Presi 
dent  is  shot,  and  I  reel  and  stagger  under  the 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


thought  I  am  about  to  remove  the  President.  But 
God's  will,  and  not  mine  be  done.' 

"On  June  2Oth,  in  the  same  address,  I  used  these 
words:  'The  President's  nomination  was  an  act  of 
God.  The  President's  election  was  an  act  of 
God.  The  President's  removal  is  an  act  of  God.' 
And  now  I  say  I  expect  Him  to  vindicate  me. 

"I  now  call  attention,"  says  Guiteau,  "to  a  re 
markable  letter,  entitled  'A  Genuine  Christian  on 
the  Guiteau  Case.'  The  letter  calls  upon  Mr. 
Scoville  to  abandon  the  theory  of  insanity,  and 
continues  in  this  way:  'That  it  was  His  will  Gar- 
field  should  die  is  already  proven.  Had  the  bullet 
missed  would  it  not  have  been  providential?  As 
it  hit,  was  it  not  equally  providential?  Who  but  an 
infidel  would  say  God  had  not  the  power  to  stop 
the  leaden  messenger?  All  Christians  agree,  if  God 
willed  it  otherwise,  it  would  have  been  otherwise. 

"  Rev.  Mr.  Morgan,  in  Church  of  Heavenly 
Rest:  '  God  had  refused  to  prolong  the  life  of  our 
beloved  President.  He  had  refused  it  deliberately 
and  because  it  was  best  to  refuse  it.  Let  Christ 
ians  be  sure  of  that.  Let  them  know  that  God 
was  always  right.' 

"Henry  Ward  Beecher,  in  prayer:  'Thou,  Lord, 
hast  laid  Thy  hand  heavily  upon  this  nation.  Thy 
servant  Thou  hast  taken  to  Thyself  in  a  way  that 
fills  us  with  shame  and  horror.  We  believe  that 
Thou  art  anointing  this  great  people,  and  by  this 
great  sorrow  raising  us  to  a  higher  plane.' 


440 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 


"  Rev.  Dr.  Crawford,  Forty-second  Street  M.  E. 
Church :  *  Garfield's  loss  was  a  great  one  to  the 
nation,  but  the  wisdom  of  God  could  not  be  ques 
tioned,  as  He  did  all  things  for  the. best.' 

"Dr.  Talmage:  *  Garfield's  death  accomplished 
more  than  his  life  in  setting  forth  the  truth  that, 
when  our  time  comes  to  go,  the  most  energetic 
and  skillful  opposition  cannot  hinder  the  event.' 

"Rev.  Dr.  Bellows :  'Already  blessings  manifold 
had  followed  the  shooting  of  the  President  and 
the  effect  of  that  good  influence  was  seen  through 
out  the  whole  nation.  Sublime  confidence  in  God 
was  reached  when  we  could  say  from  the  heart : 
'Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  Him.' 
God  did  not  permit  His  ways  to  be  placed  under 
our  microscopic  inspection/ 

"Beware,  ye  nations  of  the  earth  who  incur  the 
wrath  of  the  Almighty !  The  French  nation  in 
curred  the  wrath  of  the  Deity  and  it  came  to 
grief.  The  bloody  French  revolution  devastated 
that  nation  like  a  tornado  of  fire  and  blood.  The 
old  Roman  Empire,  the  greatest  government  on 
earth  for  centuries,  incurred  the  wrath  of  the 
Deity  and  it,  too,  was  swept  out  of  existence.  The 
Jewish  nation,  God's  favored  nation  for  two  thou 
sand  years,  incurred  the  wrath  of  the  Deity  when 
they  crucified  the  despised  Galilean  and  it,  too, 
went  down  in  war  and  desolation.  Beware,  ye 
Americans,  that  you  do  not  incur  the  wrath  of  the 
Deity  by  dealing  unwisely  by  me,  for  I  tell  you 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


441 


truth,  and  lie  not,  when  I  say  I  am  here  as  God's 
man.  He  inspired  the  President's  removal  ajid 
has  taken  care  of  it,  and  I  expect  He  will  vindicate 
me,  even  if  this  nation  rolls  in  blood.  Put  my 
body  into  the  ,ground  if  you  will;  that  is  all  you 
can  do !  But  thereafter  comes  a  day  of  reckon 
ing.  Beware,  ye  Americans,  beware!  American 
slave  owners  put  John  Brown's  body  in  the  ground, 
but  they  paid  for  it  during  the  war,  in  blood  and 
desolation ! 

"  '  John  Brown's  body  lies  mouldering  in  the  grave, 
But  his  soul  went  marching  on.'  " 

Guiteau  says  he  is  fortunate  that  his  case  has 
been  tried  before  so  able  a  Judge.  "  In  general," 
he  says,  "  I  am  satisfied  with  your  Honor's  pro 
posed  instructions,  but  I  would  humbly  suggest 
that  the  jury  be  charged  as  follows:  That  if  they 
believe  that  I  believed  it  was  right  for  me  to 
remove  the  President,  because  I  had  special  Divine 
authority  for  so  doing,  they  will  acquit  on  the 
ground  that  I  was  overpowered  by  the  Deity,  i.  e.> 
that  I  was  suffering  from  transitory  mania."  He 
asks  the  jury  to  give  the  case  the  most  solemn 
and  prayerful  attention  and  he  has  no  doubt  that 
the  verdict  will  be  "not  guilty,"  as  found  in  the 
indictment.  "To  hang  a  man  in  my  mental  con 
dition  on  July  2nd,  when  I  fired  on  the  President, 
would  be  a  lasting  disgrace  to  the  American  peo 
ple,  and  I  am  sure  you  so  understand  it." 

'•The  mothers  and  daughters  of  the  Republic 


442  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

are  praying  that  you  will  vindicate  my  inspiration 
and  their  prayers,  I  expect,  will  prevail.  A 
woman's  instinct  is  keener  than  man's,  and  I  pray 
you  listen  to  the  prayers  of  these  ladies.  How 
would  your  mother  and  wife  and  daughter  vote 
on  this  case  ?  Have  you  any  doubt  but  they 
would  vote  for  an  acquittal?  And  why  should 
you  not  do  likewise  ? 

"  Physical  death  has  no  terrors  for  me.  Sup 
pose  it  possible  that  I  should  be  sentenced  to  be 
hung  in  thirty  days  ?  I  may  die  in  twenty-four 
hours.  I  have  always  been  a  praying  man,  and  I 
think  I  stand  well  with  the  Deity.  I  am  sure  I  do 
in  this  case.  And  now,  gentlemen,  I  leave  this 
case  with  you.  At  the  last  great  day  you  and  all 
men  will  stand  in  the  presence  of  the  Deity  crying 
for  mercy  and  justice.  As  you  act  here  so  will  be 
your  final  abode  in  the  great  hereafter.  I  beg 
you  to  not  get  the  Deity  down  on  you  by  med 
dling  with  this  case.  I  beg,  for  your  own  sakes, 
and  for  the  sake  of  the  American  people,  and  for 
the  sake  of  generations  yet  unborn,  that  you  let 
this  case  alone.  You  cannot  afford  to  touch  it. 
Let  your  verdict  be  that  it  was  the  Deity's  act,  not 
mine.  When  the  President  was  shot,  his  Cabinet 
telegraphed  to  foreign  nations  that  it  was  the  act 
of  a  'madman,'  and  it  will  be  far  better  every  way 
that  it  be  officially  decided  that  it  was  the  act  of 
a  'madman.'" 

On  the  opening  of  the  Court  on  Monday,  Janu- 


ASSASSM  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


ary  i6th,  Mr.  Scoville  proceeded  at  once  with  his 
address  to  the  jury.  He  thanked  them  for  the 
patience  with  which  they  had  listened  to  the  evi 
dence.  He  appealed  to  the  jurors  to  divest  their 
minds  wholly  of  any  preconceived  opinions  on  the 
case.  That  was  all  that  the  defense  asked.  He 
would  not  attempt  to  appeal  to  the  sentiments  of 
the  jury  ;  if  the  question  was  to  be  decided  by 
emotion,  by  passion,  by  prejudice,  by  fear,  then 
the  defendant  was  lost  —  the  defendant  would  be 
hanged. 

What  was  the  issue  ?  It  was  whether  or  not  the 
prisoner  was  insane  on  the  2d  of  July  last  when  he 
shot  the  President.  He  characterized  Mr.  Davidge 
as  a  fair,  honest  man,  but  stated  that  insensibly  he  had 
not  in  all  cases  given  the  jury  a  fair,  full,  strict,  honest 
statement  of  the  evidence.  Neither  had  he  given 
them  a  full,  fair,  honest  statement  of  the  law. 
He  had  not,  as  Mr.  Davidge  told  the  jury  he 
had,  characterized  the  prisoner  as  a  fool.  He 
charged  that  in  this  case  there  had  been  a  con 
spiracy  on  the  part  of  the  District-Attorney,  Mr. 
Porter,  Mr.  Davidge,  and  the  expert  witnesses, 
Drs.  Hamilton,  Macdonald,  Kempster,  Gray  and 
Worcester,  and  the  object  of  the  conspiracy  was 
to  hang  the  defendant. 

Mr  Scoville  proceeded  to  criticise  some  of  Mr. 
Davidge's  propositions  in  his  argument  to  the 
jury,  complaining  of  misrepresentations  of  the 
law.  One  of  these  propositions  was  that  the  case 


444 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 


must  turn  on  "the  iron  rule  whether  the  man 
knew  the  difference  between  right  and  wrong." 
That  was  not  the  rule  here,  Mr.  Scoville  said ;  it 
had  been  the  rule  in  England  250  years  ago, 
where,  if  a  man  had  sense  enough  left  to  know 
more  than  a  wild  beast,  he  must  be  executed.  It 
had  been  well  termed  "  the  wild  beast  rule."  As 
to  the  power  to  discriminate  between  right  and 
wrong:  he  argued  that,  from  the  prisoner's  stand 
point,  from  his  diseased  view  of  it,  the  act  was 
not  wrong;  it  was  right,  and  so  Mr.  Davidge's 
proposition  was  not  a  correct  proposition  of  law. 
The  inmate  of  an  insane  asylum,  when  he  at 
tacked  another  inmate  or  an  officer  of  the  institu 
tion,  knew  that  he  was  committing  a  crime,  knew 
the  difference  between  the  right  and  the  wrong  of 
the  act ;  but  nobody  ever  heard  of  one  of  these 
insane  people  being  held  to  account  in  a  court 
under  this  "iron  rule  of  law."  If  the  prisoner  was 
on  that  morning  overpowered  by  the  consciouness 
(coming  through  his  diseased  mind)  that  the  Lord 
was  requiring  him  to  do  an  act  for  the  good  of  the 
country  and  to  save  the  nation  from  war,  then  it 
was  the  result  of  a  diseased  mind,  and  the  act 
was,  in  the  prisoner's  view  of  it,  right. 

Commenting  upon  the  fact  that  the  prosecution 
had  raked  up  every  little  act  in  the  prisoner's  life, 
on  which  the  jury  were  asked  to  convict  and  hang 
this  man,  he  said  there  was  only  one  thing  in  his 
history  for  which  he  should  hide  his  head,  and  that 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  **? 

was  the  crime  of  adultery.  But  clearly,  even  that 
crime  was  not  one  which  would  justify  the  hang 
ing  of  this  man ;  and  he  recounted  the  incident  of 
the  woman  taken  in  adultery,  and  how  Christ 
treated  her. 

At  this  stage  the  Court  took  a  recess  for  half 
an  hour. 

After  the  recess,  Mr.  Scoville  proceeded  with  his 
argument,  pointing  out  several  places  in  Mr. 
Davidge's  address  in  which  he  alleged  there  was 
a  misapprehension  of  the  testimony. 

Referring  to  the  testimony  of  Shaw  and  his 
clerk  as  to  the  conversation  in  which  the  prisoner 
said  he  would  imitate  Wilkes  Booth,  Mr.  Scoville 
declares  his  belief  that  in  that  matter  both  these 
witnesses  had  perjured  themselves.  Shaw  wanted 
to  bring  this  man  to  the  gallows.  He,  Scoville, 
could  honor  Mason,  McGill  and  Jones  as  com 
pared  with  Shaw.  They  were  willing  to  take 
their  lives  in  their  hands,  if  necessary.  They  were 
willing,  at  least,  to  stake  their  personal  liberty  on 
the  issue.  But  Shaw  sought  to  hang  this  man 
without  assuming  even  the  risk  of  a  prosecution 
for  perjury. 

Then,  as  the  Court  was  declared  adjourned,  at 
3  o'clock,  Guiteau  said,  "I  ask  Your  Honor  to 
read  my  speech  this  evening,  because  I  want  -to 
talk  to  you  about  it  to-morrow  morning." 

At  the  opening  of  Court,  on  Tuesday,  January 
i  yth,  Guiteau  addressed  the  Court  in  a  brief  stilted 

38 


446  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.  GU1TEAU, 

speech,  concluding  as  follows:  "I  ask  your  Honor, 
in  the  name  of  justice,  in  the  name  of  the  Ameri 
can  judiciaryr,  in  the  name  of  the  American  people, 
to  allow  me  to  address  that  jury  of  my  country 
men,  in  a  case  where  my  life  may  be  at  stake.  If 
a  man  upon  that  jury  has  a  doubt  as  to  his  duty  to 
acquit  me,  my  speech  will  probably  settle  it  in  my 
favor.  Therefore,  in;  the  interest  of  justice,  it  is 
of  the  greatest  importance  that  the  jury  should 
hear  me  in  my  defense." 

Judge  Cox:  I  will  take  the  matter  into  con 
sideration. 

Prisoner:  Thank  you,  sir. 

Mr.  Scoville  then  proceeded  with  his  argument. 
He  criticised  very  severely  the  conduct  of  the 
District-Attorney  in  sending  experts  to  the  jail  to 
make  up  a  case  for  the  goverment.  When  the  Dis 
trict- Attorney  knew  that  the  question  was  as  to  the 
condition  of  the  prisoner's  mind  on  the  2d  of  July, 
it  was  his  duty  as  an  officer  of  the  law  to  make  such 
an  investigation  of  the  mental  condition  of  the  pris 
oner  as  would  satisfy  a  jury  on  this  subject.  He 
complained  that  the  District-Attorney  had  sup 
pressed  all  the  evidence  of  the  state  of  the  pris 
oner's  mind  for  the  first  two  weeks  since  his  con 
finement. 

The  District- Attorney  denied  the  statement,  and 
reminded  Mr.  Scoville  that  the  prosecution  had 
put  upon  the  stand  Dr.  Young,  the  physician  of 
the  jail,  who  had  seen  the  prisoner  on  the  2d  of 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


July,  and  every  day  thereafter.  He  also  said  that 
Mr.  Scoville  himself  was  at  the  jail  on  the  4th  of 
July  and  subsequent  days. 

Mr.  Scoville  admitted  the  fact,  but  complained 
that  the  short-hand  notes  of  the  conversation  with 
the  prisoner,  which  had  heen  taken  by  the  Dis 
trict-Attorney's  stenographer,  had  been  purposely 
destroyed.  He  complained  also  that  Mr.  Davidge 
had  misrepresented  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Spitzka, 
and  that  all  the  counsel  for  the  government  had 
sought  by  ridicule  to  belittle  Dr.  Spitzka  and  to 
do  away  with  the  effect  of  his  open,  manly,  scien 
tific  statement. 

Referring  to  the  failure  of  the  prosecution  to 
put  on  the  stand  Detective  McElfresh,  who  accom 
panied  the  prisoner  to  the  jail  on  July  2d,  and  to 
the  subsequent  objection  of  the  District-Attorney 
to  allow  the  defense  to  call  McElfresh,  he  said  that, 
while  calling  him  at  that  point  of  the  case  might 
be  contrary  to  the  rules  of  law,  it  was  not  con 
trary  to  the  rules  of  eternal  justice. 

Mr.  Scoville  then  ran  on  in  a  long  string  of 
personalities  concerning  Mr.  Porter  and  the  Dis 
trict-Attorney,  after  which  he  proceeded  to  give 
the  theory  of  the  defense.  He  thought  that  the 
prisoner  was  affected  with  chronic  insanity  and  that 
the  commencement  of  it  was  when  the  prisoner 
was  a  boy  of  about  nineteen  years  of  age,  or  be 
fore  that.  The  incident  related  by  Thomas  North 
of  the  prisoner's  striking  his  father  in  the  back, 


448  TRIAL   Ol<  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

was  perhaps  the  first  instance  of  the  cropping  out 
of  the  disease.  He  believed  that  he  had  the  seeds 
of  the  disease  at  his  birth.  He  believed  that  it 
was  only  the  regular,  systematic,  continuous  labors 
of  Luther  W.  Guiteau  as  County  Clerk  and 
cashier  that  had  saved  him  from  a  madhouse,  and 
that  if  he  had  been  left,  like  his  unfortunate  son, 
a  wreck  and  a  waif,  without  anything  to  occupy 
his  mind,  he  might  have  had  such  an  inspiration 
as  the  son  had. 

Here  the  Court  took  a  recess  for  half  an  hour. 

After  the  recess  Mr.  Scoville  resumed  his  ad 
dress  to  the  jury.  He  attributed  to  transitory 
mania  the  incident  of  the  prisoner's  raising  an  axe 
against  his  sister,  and  the  circumstance  of  his 
denying  it,  because  such  sudden  attacks  of  trans 
itory  mania  were  frequently  accompanied  by  total 
forgetfulness.  He  spoke  of  his  intense  study  at 
that  period  of  his  life  to  keep  up  with  his  lectures, 
to  make  up  for  lost  time,  while  at  the  same  time 
he  was  studying  the  Bible  and  the  works  of  the 
Oneida  Community,  with  which  his  father  sup 
plied  him,  and  said  that  at  that  time  the  prisoner's 
reason  tottered  on  its  throne. 

Mr.  Scoville  proceeded  with  his  review  of  the 
prisoner's  career  until  he  came  to  1875,  the  time 
of  the  Inter-  Ocean  scheme,  at  which  time,  he  said, 
the  prisoner  was  a  fit  subject  for  an  insane  asylum. 
Then  he  traced  him  through  his  lecturing  period 
in  1877-8-9,  and  declared  his  belief  that  during 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


that  period  the  man  was  insane.  He  was  simply 
a  peripatetic  madman.  Coming  down  to  the 
prisoner's  connection  with  the  political  canvass  of 
1880,  he  adverted  to  his  egotism  as  a  proof  of  his 
unsoundness  of  mind. 

Referring  to  the  speech  prepared  by  the  pris 
oner  with  the  title  of  "  Garfield  against  Hancock," 
and  remarking  that  it  had  first  been  prepared  with 
the  idea  that  Grant  would  have  been  the  Repub 
lican  candidate  for  President,  the  prisoner  said: 
"I  had  to  work  it  over  and  make  it  fit  Garfield." 
Mr.  Scoville  spoke  of  the  prisoner's  application 
for  the  Austrian  mission,  and  of  his  letter  to  Mr. 
Garfield  saying  that  he  would  marry  a  New  York 
lady,  and  that  between  them  they  would  repre 
sent  the  United  States  in  Vienna  with  dignity  and 
grace.  If  the  man  wanted  the  Austrian  mission, 
and  if  he  had  the  sense  of  a  child  would  he  have 
undertaken  to  act  in  that  way? 

Mr.  Scoville  read  to  the  jury  some  portions  of 
the  speech  "Garfield  against  Hancock,"  although 
the  prisoner  tolcl  him  that,  in  doing  so,  he  was 
killing  his  theory,  because  it  was  a  good  speech. 
Mr.  Scoville  characterized  it  as  the  idle  vaporing 
of  a  diseased  imagination. 

o 

Mr.  Scoville  reviewed  the  political  situation  in 
the  spring  of  1881,  and  the  effect  of  it  upon  the 
prisoner's  mind,  leading  him  to  believe  that  the 
Republican  party  would  be  defeated  at  the  next 
election,  that  the  Democratic  party  would  seize 
38* 


450 


TPIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU. 


the  government  and  that  civil  war  would  ensue. 
He  had  got  the  idea  from  a  man  high  in  party 
council — Senator  Chandler,  of  Michigan — that 
another  civil  war  would  come,  in  which  millions 
of  men  would  be  sacrificed,  and  the  thought  came 
to  him,  "  Can  that  calamity  be  averted  ?"  That 
thought  was  supplemented  by  another,  "Yes,  it 
can  be  averted  by  the  removal  of  the  President. 
If  the  President  were  out  of  the  way  these  troubles 
would  cease."  His  next  idea  was,  "  Perhaps  I  am 
the  divinely  appointed  agent  to  accomplish  it." 
Then,  entirely  consistently  with  his  whole  life,  he 
immediately  goes  to  the  Lord  in  prayer  to  find  out 
whether  the  suggestion  was  a  good  one  or  an  evil 
one;  whether  it  came  from  God  or  whether  it 
came  from  the  devil. 

Of  course  a  sane  man  would  have  known  that 
the  Lord  would  not  prompt  him  to  kill  another 
man ;  but  no  one  could  judge  as  to  the  workings  of 
an  insane  mind.  After  two  week's  prayer  he  had 
become  convinced  that  the  Lord  required  him  to 
do  this  act.  And  then  he  went  on  day  by  day 
deliberately  to  do  what  he  believed  the  Lord  re 
quired  him  to  do. 

On  Wednesday  morning,  January  i8th,  Mr. 
Scoville  proceeded  with  his  address,  commenting 
on  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Gray,  of  the  Utica  Asylum, 
and  citing  cases  of  insanity,  stated  in  tables  made 
out  by  him  as  superintendent  of  that  asylum,  to 
show  that  persons  committed  homicide  under  in- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  ,c  i 

sane  delusions  and  soon  afterward  sustained  a  re 
action  and  could  converse  intelligibly. 

Dr.  Gray  was  hired  to  come  here  to  help  to 
hang  this  man.  He  was  one  of  the  co-conspirators 
of  which  the  District-Attorney  was  chief,  and  his 
part  of  it  was  to  swear  as  to  his  opinion ;  and  he  did 
it  boldly,  but  fortunately  he  has  left  the  footprints 
here  by  which  I  can  contradict  him  out  of  his  own 
mouth.  Mr.  Scoville  then  proceeded,  undertaking 
to  show  by  Dr.  Gray's  tables  that  in  cases  of 
homicidal  mania  the  patient  was  not  always  past 
recovery.  Dr,  Gray  had  testified  that  it  might  be 
the  delusion  of  an  insane  man  that  he  was  lost  for 
ever.  Was  it  not  a  delusion  for  the  prisoner  to 
believe  that  instead  of  being  condemned  of  God, 
he  was  placed  on  a  par  with  the  Deity,  and  was 
selected  by  Him  as  the  special  instrument  to  carry 
out  his  will  ?  The  opinion  of  the  experts  was 
substantially  that  the  prisoner  was  not  feigning  in 
the  court-room.  It  was  true  that  Dr.  Hamilton 
had  stated  it  to  be  his  opinion  that  the  man  was 
playing  a  part.  The  rest  of  the  experts  had 
stated  substantially  the  same  thing.  They  had 
evidently  talked  it  over,  and  come  to  the  conclu 
sion  as  to  what  they  would  say. 

Mr.  Scoville  here  turned  again  to  the  question 
of  politics  as  connected  with  the  case.  He  said:  If 
there  were  no  reasons  back  of  this  prosecution, 
this  man  arraigned  here  before  you,  gentlemen, 
would  never  have  been  brought  into  this  Court. 


452  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

I  say,  and  I  say  it  without  fear,  that  the  movers 
of  this  prosecution  are  those  politicians  who  seek 
to  hide  their  own  infamy  by  casting  the  blame  on 
this  insane  man.  I  say  that  such  men  as  Conk- 
ling  and  Grant  and  Arthur — those  who  made  war 
without  justification  on  that  dead  President  whom 
they  have  since  lauded  to  the  skies — instituted 
that  state  of  things  and  manufactured  that  degree 
of  public  excitement,  and  political  feeling,  that 
preyed  on  this  insane  man  until  reason  left  its 
throne  and  he  did  that  which  he  considered  to  be 
perfectly  in  accordance  with  their  counsel  and 
their  conduct. 

I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  I  shall  not 
spare  these  men  who  fomented  this  strife,  and 
permit  them  to  make  a  scapegoat  of  this  insane 
man,  so  that  they  shall  be  still  revered  and  honored 
in  public  estimation.  Do  you  believe  that  this 
crime  would  ever  have  been  committed  if  Conk- 
ling  and  Platt  had  not  resented  the  nomination  by 
President  Garfield  of  Judge  Robertson  to  be  Col 
lector  of  the  Port  of  New  York  ?  Here  is  a  Presi 
dent  whom  since  his  death  all  say  to  be  one  of 
the  noblest  of  the  land.  I  say  it  because  I  believe 
it  and  because  I  had  that  opinion  of  him  before 
his  death.  But  these  men,  who  since  his  death 
have  been  so  profuse  in  their  admiration  of  him, 
who  have  said  so  many  things  in  laudation  of  his 
character  and  his  high  motives,  were  ready  before 
the  2d  of  July  last  to  trample  him  in  the  dust  if 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


they  had  had  the  opportunity.  They  were  ready 
to  degrade  and  disgrace  him  with  his  country. 
They  were  ready  to  see  him  go  down  in  obscurity 
and  disgrace  to  the  grave  if  it  could  be  done  with 
out  the  aid  of  an  assassin's  hand. 

I  admit  that  Mr.  Conkling  is  (imitating  Mr.  Por 
ter's  style  of  declamation)  "  one  of  the  first  Parlia 
mentarians  of  the  age  ;"  that  he  is  a  great  states 
man,  I  admit  also  ;  and  Mr.  Conkling,  with  those 
qualities,  had  no  right,  had  no  business,  to  engage 
in  a  petty  squabble  about  a  petty  office.  He  waged 
a  war  on  the  chosen  representative  of  the  Ameri 
can  people  in  the  Presidential  chair.  Mr.  Conkling 
shall  not  shirk,  shall  not  avoid,  shall  not  escape 
the  condemnation  of  the  American  people,  if  I  can 
fasten  it  on  him,  for  that  disgraceful  conduct. 

Neither  shall  General  Grant,  honored  as  he  is 
by  his  country,  honored  as  he  has  been  by  the  suf 
frages  of  the  people,  honored  as  he  has  been  for 
twenty  years  in  my  own  heart  —  neither  shall  Gene 
ral  Grant  escape  that  condemnation  to  which  he 
ju  stly  subj  ected  himself  when,  coming  from  Mexico, 
leaving  his  duties  and  coming  with  undue  haste, 
he  threw  his  own  name  and  influence  into  that 
petty  quarrel  about  a  small  office  in  the  Republi 
can  party,  and  sought  to  foment  the  difference 
which  had  sprung  up.  General  Grant  stands  a 
nobleman  only  as  he  stands  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen.  We  have  no  Lord  Grant  ;  no  Duke 
of  Galena  ;  we  have  only  General  Grant,  and  as 


454  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

long  as  he  maintains  his  high  character,  his  devo 
tion  to  his  country,  so  long  and  no  longer  will  he 
maintain  that  place  which  he  has  obtained  in  the 
hearts  of  his  countrymen.  It  is  more  noble  for 
General  Grant  to  say  what  he  has  lately  said  in  re 
lation  to  General  Porter — that  his  conduct  toward 
him  eighteen  years  ago  was  a  mistake ;  that  he 
did  a  wrong,  and  that  it  should  be  corrected — it 
was  more  noble,  more  manly  in  him  to  take  that 
position  than  to  do  anything  which  he  has  accom 
plished  during,  the  course  of  his  long  life.  But 
there  is  another  step  for  him  to  take  and  another 
step  for  the  President  to  take  if  they  would  redeem 
themselves  in  the  opinion  of  their  countrymen. 

When  the  Vice-President  of  the  United  States 
left  his  high  position  and  went  to  Albany  and  pros 
tituted  his  place  and  his  talent  and  his  influence 
toward  the  fomenting  and  spreading  of  this  quar 
rel  and  controversy  in  the  Republican  party,  he 
deserved  the  condemnation  of  ever}'  citizen  of  this 
Republic.  And  that  conduct  sticks  to  him  yet, 
and  will  until  he  and  General  Grant  and  Senator 
Conkling,  in  all  their  pride,  in  all  their  ambition, 
shall  come  out  openly  and  plainly  before  the  pub 
lic,  through  a  letter  or  declaration  of  some  kind 
and  say  that  this  warfare,  which  they  waged  on 
President  Garfield,  was  unwarranted,  and  was  dis 
graceful  to  them  as  citizens  of  the  Republic,  hold 
ing  the  high  positions  which  they  held.  I  am  not 
going  to  see  the  shortcomings  and  the  misdeeds 


ASS.4SSAV  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


455 


of  these  men,  though  high  in  place  and  power, 
visited  on  the  head  of  this  insane  man,  if  I  can 
help  it.  And  I  tell  you  it  would  be  done,  if  you 
find  a  verdict  of  guilty.  This  is  the  reason  which 
has  prompted  all  this  expenditure  of  powrer  and 
force  on  the  part  of  the  adminstration  to  hang  this 
man.  It  is  not  for  the  purpose  of  vindicating  Presi 
dent  Garfield.  It  is  not  for  the  purpose  of  doing 
justice.  But  if  it  can  be  made  to  appear  by  the 
verdict  of  a  jury  that  this  act  was  the  act  of  a 
sane  man,  a  man  \vho  was  responsible  for  his  con 
duct,  by  a  man  who  could  control  his  action,  a 
man  who  should  be  judged  by  the  same  standard 
by  which  we  judge  ourselves — what  then  ?  Why 
these  men  can  say  and  will  say,  "  We  are  not  re 
sponsible  for  what  a  sane  man  has  done;  we  are 
not  responsible  for  that.  It  is  true  we  had  a 
quarrel.  It  is  true  we  had  a  difference,  but  no 
sane  man  had  a  right  because  of  that  to  shoot 
the  President."  And  that  reasoning  is  perfectly 
correct.  Therefore  if  you  find  this  prisoner  guilty 
these  men  are  sheltered,  secured,  almost  vindi 
cated  from  public  opinion. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  suppose  you  find  this 
man  not  guilty  by  reason  of  insanity,  what  is  the 
result  ?  The  people  say :  "  This  is  the  man  whose 
mind  was  preyed  upon  by  supposed  impending 
evil,  who  was  led  to  believe  that  there  was  another 
war  coming,  and  that  a  million  lives  were  to  be 
sacrificed.  Under  that  delusion  he  shot  the  Presi- 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


dent  of  the  United  States."  That  will  be  the  first 
conclusion.  What  will  be  the  next  step? 
.  Somebody  must  be  to  blame  when  an  act  of  this 
kind  has  been  done.  Who  induced  this  poor  luna 
tic  to  do  this  act  ?  Recollect  those  slips  cut  from 
the  newspapers  and  stating  what  Conkling  said, 
what  Conkling  did  ;  what  Arthur  said,  what  Arthur 
did;  what  Grant  said,  what  Grant  did.  When 
the  people  make  up  their  minds  they  will  fix  the 
blame  somewhere.  Where  will  it  rest  but  upon 
the  heads  of,  and  hearts  of,  these  men  who  waged 
this  unjustifiable  war  against  the  dead  President, 
and  these  men  will  rest  forever  with  that  oppro 
brium  upon  them  ;  forever,  and  they  will  go  down 
to  their  graves  with  the  contempt  and  reproach  of 
their  fellow  citizens,  unless  they  do  the  only  thing 
that  can  be  done  —  what  Grant  has  done  in  rela 
tion  to  Fitz  John  Porter  —  come  out  and  say  as 
American  citizens,  "  We  did  wrong."  Let  them 
write  a  letter  to  the  desolate  widow  at  Cleveland, 
and  say  to  her  :  "  It  is  true  we  are  sorry,  it  is  true 
we  mourn  with  you,  but  we  feel  that  this  terrible 
calamity  was  in  some  degree  the  outgrowth,  the 
legitimate  result  of  this  unjustifiable  war  which 
we  waged  against  your  dead  husband,  and  we 
pray  you  to  forgive  us."  When  these  men  do 
that,  they  will  show  their  claim  to  the  regard  of 
the  American  people,  and  it  is  the  only  thing  they 
can  do  to  save  their  names  from  merited  obliv 
ion. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


457 


The  Court  then,  at  1 2  o'clock,  took  a  recess  for 
one  hour. 

After  the  recess  Mr.  Scoville  commented  upon 
the  fact  that  the  prosecution  had  objected  to  Dr. 
Beard,  of  New  York,  testifying  in  sur-rebuttal. 
He  then  resumed  his  review  of  the  evidence,  as 
serting  that  the  testimony  of  Secretary  Elaine  must 
lead  every  mind  to  the  conclusion  that  the  pris 
oner  was  either  a  fool  or  a  crazy  man.  He  re 
ferred  to  the  interviews  which  General  Reynolds 
had  with  the  prisoner,  dwelling  at  some  length  on 
the  statement  made  by  the  latter  that  "when  the 
President  died  he  would  go  abroad." 

Mr.  Scoville,  continuing,  stated  that  in  any  or 
dinary  case,  while  possibly  not  sufficient  to  con 
vince  the  jury  that  the  man  was  insane  on  the  2d 
of  July,  the  testimony  presented  by  the  prosecu 
tion  would  be  sufficient  to  bring  them  into  that 
condition  where  they  would  be  obliged  to  say, 
"We  have  a  reasonable  doubt  whether  he  was 
sane,"  and  on  that  "reasonable  doubt"  a  verdict 
of  acquittal  must  be  brought  in. 

The  Court  then,  at  5  minutes  past  3,  adjourned. 

The  prisoner  opened  the  proceedings  of  Thurs 
day,  January  iQth,  by  a  flattering  reference  to 
a  recent  decision  of  the  New  York  Court  of 
Appeals,  whereby  the  burden  of  proof  in  an 
insanity  case  is  declared  to  rest  upon  the  prose 
cution,  which  must  prove  that  a  criminal  is  sane 
at  the  time  of  committing  the  deed  charged. 


458  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

Mr.  Scoville  then  resumed  his  position  opposite 
the  jury-box,  and  again  addressed  the  jury  in  be 
half  of  his  client.  He  quoted  from  the  testimony 
of  Officer  Kearney,  who  arrested  the  prisoner,  to 
show  the  incidents  which  followed  the  shooting 
of  the  President.  These  incidents,  Mr.  Scoville 
claimed,  showed  that  the  prisoner  was  perfectly 
composed  at  the  time  of  the  arrest,  and  entirely 
free  from  excitement — a  state  of  mind  which  was 
inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  sanity.  He  also 
quoted  from  the  testimony  of  Officer  Eckloff,  who, 
with  Detective  McElfresh,  had  taken  the  prisoner 
from  police  headquarters  to  the  jail,  in  order  to 
call  attention  to  the  statement  of  the  witness  that 
during  the  ride  the  prisoner  had  held  a  whispered 
conversation  with  Detective  McElfresh.  Mr.  Sco 
ville  then  read  the  letter  addressed  by  the  prisoner 
to  General  Sherman,  and  asserted  that  it  could 
not  have  been  written  by  a  man  of  sane  mind, 
neither  could  a  sane  man  have  written  the  letter 
to  the  White  House.  Mr.  Scoville,  after  extended 
and  bitter  controversy  between  counsel  as  to  the 
affirmed  mutilation  of  a  letter,  asserted  that  there 
was  not  a  minute  from  the  time  that  the  prisoner 
had  been  nineteen  years  of  age  up  to  the  2d  of 
July  last  that  he  had  not  been  an  insane  man,  but 
his  allusion  to  the  prisoner's  brain  as  "  feeble" 
drew  forth  the  ironical  remark  from  the  latter,  "  I 
know  my  brain  is  very  feeble,  Scoville." 

Mr.  Scoville  further  said  that  he  was  speaking 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


not  so  much  for  the  purpose  of  saving  this  man's 
life,  as  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  an  injustice 
being  done  here  that  should  stand  forever  a  lasting, 
permanent,  unendurable  disgrace  to  the  American 
people  and  the  American  judiciary. 

The  Court,  at  half-past  12,  took  a  recess  for 
three-quarters  of  an  hour. 

After  the  recess  Mr.  Scoville  held  a  whispered 
conversation  with  the  prisoner,  and  then  resumed 
his  argument.  If  the  prisoner  had  planned  in  his 
own  mind  that  he  would  feign  insanity  as  a  defence 
he  would  have  manifested  his  intention  while  in 
jail.  It  was  perfectly  absurd  to  suppose  that 
he  had  it  in  his  mind  to  feign  insanity,  and  yet 
that  he  had  not  attempted  to  carry  out  the  feign 
ing  at  the  jail.  Coming  down  to  the  time  of  the 
killing,  Mr.  Scoville  argued  that  in  the  circum 
stances  connected  with  the  shooting,  the  prisoner's 
former  life,  his  life  in  jail,  the  facts  clustering 
around  that  fatal  2d  of  July,  the  facts  that  had 
been  discovered  immediately  following  the  shoot 
ing,  there  was  an  abundance  of  evidence  to  show 
that  the  act  was  that  of  an  insane  man.  But  when 
the  prisoner's  own  evidence  was  added  to  these 
facts  could  not  the  jury  see  without  leaving  the 
box  that  that  man  was  insane  on  the  2d  of  July  ? 
Could  the  prisoner's  motive  have  been  revenge  ? 
He  (Scoville)  went  on  to  argue  that  the  prisoner 
had  no  possible  ill-will  toward  the  late  •  President, 
and  had  no  motive  for  shooting  him.  It  might  be 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


claimed  that  the  prisoner  had  committed  the  act 
for  the  purpose  of  gaining  notoriety  ?  He  defied 
Judge  Porter  to  show  the  jury  a  single  case  where 
a  sane  man  had  committed  such  a  crime  merely 

J 

for  the  purpose  of  notoriety.  A  sane  man  would 
know  that  he  would  go  down  to  posterity  steeped 
in  infamy  and  iniquity,  and  would  be  classed  with 
those  who  had  crucified  the  Saviour  and  with  no 
others  on  earth. 

The  Court  then,  at  a  quarter  past  3,  adjourned. 

On  Friday,  January  2Oth,  Mr.  Scoville  resumed 
his  address,  this  being  his  fifth  day.  He  an 
nounced  his  purpose  to  confine  himself  to  the  tes 
timony  of  the  experts.  He  began  with  the  evi 
dence  given  by  Dr.  Hamilton,  in  order  to  show 
that  the  witness  was  strongly  prejudiced  against 
the  defense.  He  read  from  the  testimony  of  Dr, 
Hamilton  that  the  prisoner's  head  was  perfectly 
symmetrical,  and  declared  that  it  was  not  often 
that  a  compass  and  rule  could  demonstrate  that 
in  giving  his  opinion  a  man  was  telling  a  lie.  But 
Mathematics  show  that  the  difference  between  the 
two  sides  of  the  prisoner's  head  is  three  and  a 
half  cubic  inches, 

Mr.  Scoville  then  referred  somewhat  at  length 
to  the  shape  of  the  prisoner's  head,  illustrating 
his  remarks  by  an  examination  of  the  cast  which 
had  been  placed  in  evidence. 

District-Attorney  once  or  twice  interrupted  Mr. 
Scoville,  and  on  one  of  these  occasions  Mr.  Dav- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  CARFIELD. 


461 


idge  sarcastically  exclaimed :  "  Don't  interfere  with 
Mr.  Scoville.  I  am  afraid  he  will  stop  if  you  do. 
Don't  stop,  Mr.  Scoville." 

Mr.  Scoville  resumed  his  argument,  criticising 
the  testimony  given  by  Dr.  Gray,  of  the  Utica 
Asylum,  whom  he  characterized  as  the  big  gun 
which  the  prosecution  had  reserved  until  the  close 
of  the  case,  supposing  that  he  would  carry  the 
jury  by  his  grand,  round,  well-proportioned,  over 
whelming  declarations.  Quoting  the  case  of  an 
insane  man  who  was  thriftless  in  his  family  affairs, 
Mr.  Scoville  said  he  supposed  that  Colonel  Cork- 
hill  would  call  it  a  case  of  devilish  depravity. 
"Yes,"  cried  the  prisoner,  "Corkhill  is  authority 
on  the  devil.  Gray  is  a  big  gun  with  a  big  mouth. 
I  will  mark  him." 

The  Court  then,  at  fifteen  minutes  past  1 2,  took 
a  recess  for  forty-five  minutes. 

After  the  recess,  Mr.  Scoville,  addressing  the 
jury,  said  that  he  would  dwell  no  longer  on  the 
facts  of  the  case,  but  would  simply  mention  some 
considerations  which  should  be  called  to  their  at 
tention.  Human  laws  were  made  for  sane  peo 
ple.  Laws  were  enacted  to  reward  or  punish 
people  who  were  clearly  of  sound  mind.  It  was 
true  that  a  man  who  committed  murder  ought  to 
be  punished  even  if  he  were  over  the  border  line 
that  separated  sanity  from  insanity;  but  it  was 
not  true  that  he  should  be  punished  precisely  as 
the  man  who  stood  on  the  right  side  of  the  line. 
39* 


462  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GU1TEAU, 

Mr.  Scoville  predicted  that  Judge  Porter,  in  his 
closing  address,  would  lay  stress  upon  the  fact 
that  the  prisoner  had  refrained  from  shooting  the 
President  when  he  was  accompanied  by  Mrs. 
Garfield,  and  would  attempt  to  show  by  that  fact 
that  the  prisoner  could  not  have  acted  under  an  ir 
resistible  impulse.  Mr.  Scoville  contended  that  the 
very  fact  of  the  prisoner's  restraining  his  hand 
went  to  prove  that  he  was  acting  under  delusion; 
for,  had  his  act  been  one  of  depravity,  as  the 
prosecution  claimed,  he  would  not  have  needed 
another  night  to  allow  that  depravity  to  be  de 
veloped  in  his  heart.  He  would  have  acted  at 
once,  without  hesitation. 

Mr.  Scoville  next  entered  upon  a  flattering  dis 
cussion  of  the  jury  system  and  its  benefits,  and 
closed  his  address  by  saying:  It  is  requisite  that 
you  have  honest  hearts,  cool  heads  and  a  disposi 
tion  to  do  what  is  right.  But  above  all,  you  should 
have  moral  courage,  stability  of  character,  moral 
stamina  to  determine  that  what  may  come,  what 
may  be  said,  you  will  do  what  is  right  and  just 
toward  your  fellow-men,  and  in  the  sight  of  your 
God.  You  should  not  be  influenced  by  any  per 
sonal  motives,  by  any  motive  outside  of  a  sincere 
desire  to  decide  this  case  according  to  law  and 
evidence;  and,  when  you  have  reached  a  conclu 
sion  in  your  own  mind,  I  ask  that  you  will  render 
a  verdict  without  fear  or  without  hope  of  favor  or 
reward,  and  I  believe,  gentlemen,  that  you  will  do 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GAKFIELD. 


463 


it.     I  leave  the   case  with  you,  thanking  you  for 
your  careful  attention. 

The  District-Attorney  then  arose  and  called  the 
Court's  attention  to  the  desire  of  the  prisoner  to 
address  the  jury.  At  the  time  that  the  application 
was  made  he  had  opposed  it  very  earnestly.  The 
case  had  now  occupied  seventy  days,  and  he  did 
not  desire  a  repetition  of  it.  He  did  not  intend 
that  any  error  should  get  into  the  record  upon 
which  there  was  any  possibility  that  a  new  trial 
should  be  allowed,  and  he,  therefore,  on  behalf  of 
the  government  withdrew  all  objection  to  the  pris- 
soner's  beinor  heard. 

o> 

As  to  the  question  of  the  prisoner's  right  to 
speak  that  was  a  matter,  Mr.  Reed  said,  to  be  de 
cided  by  the  Court.  That  he  might  make  a  poor 
speech  was  no  reason  .that  he  should  not  be  heard. 
Many  lawyers  made  poor  speeches,  many  lawyers 
made  rambling  speeches;  some  made  speeches 
outside  of  the  record.  [Laughter.] 

Judge  Cox  stated  that  some  of  his  brethren 
had  very  serious  doubts  whether,  in  a  capital  case, 
the  prisoner  could  be  denied  the  right  to  address 
the  jury.  He,  therefore,  would  permit  the  pris 
oner  to  speak. 

After  further  parley  about  the  time  to  be  con 
sumed  by  the  prisoner's   speech,  the   Court  ad 
journed  for  the  day. 

The  announcement  that  Guiteau  would  address 
the  jury  on  Saturday,  January  2ist,  drew  an  im 


464  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

mense  crowd  to  the  court-room.  He  was  placed 
in  the  witness-stand  where  he  sat  down  saying: 
"I  am  going  to  sit  down  because  I  can  talk  better. 
I  am  not  afraid  of  any  one  shooting  me.  Shoot 
ing  is  on  the  decrease."  Then,  adjusted  his  glasses 
and  taking  up  a  roll  of  manuscript,  he  read  the 
speech  already  published,  prefacing  it  with  a  para 
graph  on  the  question  of  his  insanity,  another 
parading  himself  as  "the  greatest  man  of  this 
age,"  and  a  third  expressing  his  thanks  to  his 
counsel  and  his  keepers  generally. 

He  read  his  speech  in  a  declamatory  manner, 
holding  the  paper  in  one  hand  and  with  the  other 
gesticulating  and  emphasizing  his  utterances.  The 
words  "Rally  round  the  flag,  boys,"  he  repeated 
in  a  sing-song  tone,  waving  his  arm  in  the  air 
above  his  head.  "And  for  this  I  suffer  in  bonds 
as  a  patriot,"  he  quoted  in  an  oratorical  manner, 
and  then  repeating  the  sentence,  allowed  his  voice 
to  tremble  so  that  the  words  were  nearly  inaudi 
ble.  The  trembling  in  his  voice  continued  till  he 
spoke  about  his  mother  and  declared  that  he  had 
always  been  "  a  lover  of  the  Lord,"  when  he  broke 
down  completely,  and  applying  his  handkerchief 
to  his  eyes  wiped  away  the  tears  which,  naturally 
or  forced  for  the  purpose  of  exciting  sympathy, 
coursed  down  his  cheeks.  He  immediately  re 
covered,  however,  and  in  his  usual  tone  of  voice 
proceeded  with  his  address. 

When  he  came  to  his  description  of  the  attempts 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


465 


made  upon  his  life  by  Mason  and  Jones  he  stood 
up  for  the  purpose  of  more  vividly  pointing  out  to 
the  jury  the  narrow  escapes  which  he  had  had. 
With  something  of  pride  he  held  up  his  arm  and 
showed  the  rent  made  in  his  coat  by  the  bullet 
fired  by  Jones.  A  laugh  ran  through  the  audience 
as  the  prisoner  read  and  re-read  his  declaration 
that  it  would  be  perfectly  safe  for  him  to  walk 
the  streets  of  Washington  and  New  York. 

Reaching  that  portion  of  the  speech  where  an 
abstract  from  his  address  to  the  American  people 
is  inserted,  he  folded  up  the  paper,  took  off  his 
glasses,  and  squaring  himself  in  his  chair,  pro 
ceeded  to  repeat  the  extract  from  memory.  In 
doing  this  he  assumed  his  most  oratorical  style, 
modulating  the  tones  of  his  voice  and  using  both 
arms  to  aid  him  in  emphasizing  his  dramatic  utter 
ances.  When  he  reached  the  quotation  from 
"  John  Brown's  body,"  he  threw  back  his  head  and  ** 
sang  a  verse  from  that  old  song,  much  to  the 
amusement  of  the  spectators.  He  read  from  his 
speech :  "  Put  my  body  in  the  ground  if  you  will ; 
that  is  all  you  can  do  ;  but  thereafter  comes  a  day  of 
reckoning.  The  mills  of  the  gods  grind  slow,  but 
they  grind  sure,  and  they  will  grind  to  atoms  every 
man  tbat  injures  me,"  and  supplemented  it  with 
the  remark :  "  As  sure  as  a  hair  of  my  head  is  in 
jured,  this  nation  will  go  down  in  the  dust,  and 
don't  you  forget  it."  He  then  read  his  speech 
to  its  conclusion  without  any  noteworthy  inci- 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   QUITE  AU, 


dent,   and   at    12.10  the    Court   adjourned   until 
Monday. 

An  immense  crowd  gathered  at  the  court-house 
on  Monday  morning',  January  23d,  the  opening  of 
the  eleventh  week  of  the  great  trial.  After  a  few 
words  of  self-laudation  and  of  warning  to  oppos 
ing  counsel  from  Guiteau,  Mr.  Porter  proceeded 
to  address  the  jury.  He  was  evidently  quite  ill. 
After  a  few  apologetic  words,  he  said  :  Thus  far 
in  this  case  the  trial  had  been  practically  con 
ducted  by  the  prisoner  and  his  counsel,  Mr.  Sco- 
ville.  Everybody  had  been  arraigned,  everybody 
denounced,  everybody  interrupted  and  silenced  at 
their  will. 

The  jury  had  heard  the  evidence  —  much  of  it 
over  two  months  ago.  They  had  heard  it  amid 
clamor,  objections,  interruptions,  vituperation  and 
blasphemy.  The  jury  were  compelled  to  rely 
upon  their  memory  for  the  points  of  that  testi 
mony,  which  covered  two  thousand  five  hundred 
pages  closely  printed  in  double  columns,  equal  in 
ordinary  print  to  five  thousand  pages.  Of  course 
the  jury  could  not  recall  every  point  made  at  the 
time.  In  the  address  of  Mr.  Scoville,  there  had 
been  an  attempt  to  carry  out  the  plan  of  misrep 
resentation  and  perversion  of  testimony.  It  was 
deliberate,  designed,  cunning,  done  by  subterfuge 
and  indirection.  He  (Mr.  Porter)  wished  to  recall 
the  jury  to  the  case  as  it  really  was. 

My  relations    to  this    case,  he    continued,  are 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


467 


simply  those  imposed  on  me  by  the  Government, 
and  most  cordially  accepted  by  me,  because  I  be 
lieved  that  the  interests  of  public  justice  demanded 
that  the  colc^-blooded  and  deliberate  assassin  of 
President  Garfield  shall  not  leave  this  dock  until 
he  is  under  sentence  of  death.  He  in  the  mean 
time  invokes  the  mercy  of  that  God  who  spares 
even  him  who  spares  not.  He  did  not  spare  Gar- 
field,  though  he  said  he  was  a  good  man  whom  he 
was  transferring  to  Paradise ;  he  did  not  spare 
that  wife  who,  by  her  leaning  on  Garfield' s  arm, 
saved  his  life  on  one  occasion.  He  swears  that 
if  she  had  leaned  on  the  President's  arm  on  the 
2d  of  July  it  would  have  saved  him.  He  did  not 
spare  that  aged  mother  whom  the  son  so  loved. 
He  spared  no  one. 

This  man  who  appeals  to  you  in  tears  and  with 
such  pathos  through  his  counsel  for  dew-fallen 
mercy— this  man  showed  his  idea  of  mercy  to 
others  when  on  one  occasion  he  turned  to  you 
and  said  that  that  God  whose  name  he  has  so  often 
blasphemed  would  interfere  to  strike  down  one  of 
your  number  before  you  should  be  able  to  con 
vict  him.  This  is  the  man  who  invokes  the  tender 
and  merciful  consideration  of  his  case.  A  man 
brutal  in  his  instincts,  inordinate  in  his  love  of 
notoriety,  eaten  up  by  a  thirst  for  money  which 
has  gnawed  at  his  soul  like  a  cancer,  a  beggar,  a 
hypocrite,  a  canter,  a  swindler,  a  lawyer  who,  with 
many  years'  practice,  never  won  a  case.  A  man 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

who  has  left  his  trail  in  various  States,  a  man  who 
has  lived  on  other  people's  funds  and  appro 
priated  them  to  his  own  use  in  breach  of  every 
trust,  a  man  who  is  capable  of  aping  the  manners 
of  a  gentleman,  a  man  who,  as  a  lawyer,  had  this 
notion  of  morality,  that  when  he  had  taken  debts 
to  collect  and  collected  them  by  dunning  the  debtor 
held  them  against  his  client  and  chuckled  over  the 
success  of  his  scheme,  a  man  who  sold  oroide 
watches  or  pawned  them  to  get  money  through 
falsehood  and  misrepresentation.  A  man  who 
was  capable  of  endeavoring  to  blast  the  name  of 
the  woman  whom  he  acknowledged  as  a  virtuous 
wife,  who  was  capable  of  fawning  himself  off  on 
Christian  committees  and  Christian  churches  as  a 
pure  and  moral  man,  who  spent  six  years  in  for 
nication  at  the  Oneida  Community.  A  man  who 
afterward,  when  he  wished  to  get  rid  of  that  wife, 
consulted  the  commandments  of  God  and  read, 
"  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery,"  and  went  out 
straightway  into  the  public  places  and  committed 
it  with  a  street  prostitute. 

Proceeding  with  his  speech  he  eulogized  Mr. 
Garfield  as  a  soldier,  a  lawyer  and  a  statesman, 
and  said  that  so  high  was  his  reputation  he  had 
been  elected  to  the  Presidency  by  a  vote  so  clear 
aud  so  strong  that  all  the  people  said  "  Amen."  And 
that  was  the  man,  he  said,  against  whose  life  this 
prisoner  had  been  plotting  for  six  weeks,  plotting 
(without  malice,  as  he  said),  plotting,  with  no 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


counsel  except  the  fiend  of  darkness,  who  had 
prompted  the  crime. 

"Praying  is  the  word!"  the  prisoner  exclaimed. 

Mr.  Porter:  This  man  professes  to  believe  that 
the  God  who  spoke  to  Moses  and  the  Christ  who 
spoke  to  Paul  in  order  to  replace  Judas,  who  had 
been  false  to  his  trust,  inspired  this  murder.  But 
he  tells  you  on  his  own  oath  that  he  (Guiteau) 
meditated  the  means,  contrived  the  vindication, 
prepared  the  papers  which  were  to  vindicate  him 
before  God  and  man.  Mr.  Porter  then  reviewed 
the  history  of  the  case,  the  purchase  of  the  pistol, 
the  prisoner  practising-  by  the  river  side,  the  vari 
ous  occasions  when  he  was  deterred  from  the 
murder,  etc. 

As  to  his  being  restrained  from  the  murder  by 
the  presence  of  Mrs.  Garfield.  He  had  been  re 
strained  by  nothing  but  cowardice  on  all  such 
occasions.  He  knew  that  if  he  had  murdered  the 
President  in  his  wife's  presence  no  military  force 
could  have  prevented  the  people  who  were  around 
tearing  him  limb  from  limb. 

Mr.*  Porter  also  referred  to  the  spirit  of  vanity 
which  made  the  prisoner  choose  a  white  handled 
pistol  rather  than  a  black  one,  that  it  might  bear 
his  name  and  fame  "thundering  down  the  ages" 
and  be  more  conspicuous  in  the  Patent  Office. 
He  rehearsed  the  scene  at  the  railroad  depot  and 
said  that  after  Guiteau  fired  the  bullet  he  turned 
to  run.  Run  where?  Run  to  the  jail?  He  was 
40 


470  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

carefu!,  in  the  very  last  moment,  of  his  own  saiety. 
He  held  aloft  his  letter  to  General  Sherman,  ask 
ing  him  to  summon  instantly  to  his  (Guiteau's) 
protection  that  military  force  which  had  not  been 
present  to  protect  the  murdered  President.  This 
man  had  appealed  to  the  Court  to  give  him  every 
right,  every  constitutional  right,  freedom  of  speech, 
perfect  impartiality  (which  would  consist  in  making 
all  decisions  in  his  favor.)  He  had  been  dictating 
to  the  Judge  the  charge  which  he  proposed  the 
Judge  should  make  to  the  jury.  He  had  shown 
himself  averse  to  sitting  in  the  dock,  which  was  a 
disparagement  to  a  lawyer,  a  theologian,  a  poli 
tician,  a  man  of  God,  a  man  of  prayer,  a  patriot,  a 
man  whose  name  is  to  go  on  through  the  ages. 

Commenting  on  the  intimations  in  the  press 
that  there  would  be  a  disagreement  of  the  jury, 
he  remarked  that  all  the  struggle  of  counsel  for 
the  defense  had  been  to  lead  one  of  the  twelve 
jurors  to  differ  with  his  fellows.  If  there  should 
be  such  a  division  it  would  be  very  unfortunate. 

How  would  the  case  stand  if  there  were  such  a 
division  of  the  jury?  It  would  stand  about  thus: 
Here  is  a  man  who  swears  he  is  guilty,  and  here 
is  a  juror  says,  "I  swear  that  he  is  not."  The 
prisoner  calls  it  an  assassination  over  his  own 
signature,  and  the  juror  says  it  is  no  assassination. 
Oath  to  oath  opposed.  Prisoner,  "guilty."  Juror, 
"not  guilty."  Prisoner,  "sane."  Juror,  "insane." 
The  only  consequence  of  that  disagreement,  gen- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


471 


tlemen,  would  be  (under  the  charge  which  the 
Judge  will  deliver  to  you)  to  call  the  attention  not 
only  of  this  country,  but  of  mankind,  to  the  only 
human  being  who  is  ready  to  stand  by  and  shield 
the  cowardly  assassin  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  But  what  would  be  accomplished 
by  it  ?  Is  it  supposed  that  the  government  is  not 
strong  enough  to  press  the  case  to  a  conclusion? 
There  are  in  our  government  only  two  repre 
sentatives  of  the  American  people.  The  one  is 
the  head  of  the  government,  the  President  of 
the  United  States ;  the  other  is  the  jury  of 
twelve  men  to  whom,  in  the  last  resort,  all  rights> 
whether  they  be  of  life,  liberty  or  property,  come 
for  protection.  For  that  purpose,  and  under 
the  operation  of  our  law,  you  twelve  men  stand 
to-day  as  the  representatives  of  the  American 
people.  In  such  a  case  I  deny  that  any  man  can 
ignore  the  fact  that,  just  as  all  other  men  loathe 
and  abhor  such  crimes,  so  should  you.  This  pris 
oner  has  been  blatant  in  claiming  from  day  to  day 
that  the  people  of  this  country  were  on  his  side; 
that  he  was  receiving  letters  and  telegrams  and 
contributions  expressing  sympathy  with  him  ;  that 
the  newspapers  which  he  professed  to  be  reading 
(while  he  was  looking  over  the  top  of  them  and 
watching  the  progress  of  the  case)  were  contain 
ing  expressions  in  his  favor.  While  all  this  has 
been  going  on,  you  might  very  well  have  wondered 
how  it  was  that  neither  of  the  counsel  for  the  de- 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAL, 


fense  dared  to  refer  to  the  general  judgment  of 
the  city  of  Washington,  of  the  District  of  Col 
umbia,  of  the  United  States  or  of  manhood. 
They  had  yet  to  see  the  first  newspaper  published 
in  America  that  ventured  to  defend  this  criminal. 

Extended  discussion  followed  at  this  point,  upon 
the  propriety  of  permitting  statements  as  to  the 
contents  of  papers  and  letters,  pending  which  the 
Court  adjourned  at  i  o'clock,  because  of  Mr. 
Porter's  evident  illness. 

Mr.  Porter,  seemingly  in  much  better  health, 
resumed  his  speech  to  the  jury  on  Tuesday  morn 
ing,  January  24th.  After  some  preliminary  re 
marks,  he  said  :  I  endeavored  to  show  you  yester 
day  that  this  defense  was  one  founded  on  shams 
and  impostures  ;  on  brazen  falsehood,  which  was 
supposed  to  acquire  force  and  strength  by  per 
petual  reiterations,  The  disciples  of  the  school 
of  Guiteau  have  great  confidence  in  a  maxim  of 
Aaron  Burr  that  falsehoods  are  to  be  verified  by 
persistency  and  reiteration.  I  showed  you  how 
the  prisoner  had  belied,  by  his  acts,  his  profes 
sions;  the  character  given  to  him  by  his  counsel; 
how  this  gentleman,  this  prayerful  man,  this  moral 
and  Christian  man,  was  a  liar,  a  swindler  and  a 
murderer  in  heart  from  the  beginning.  That  this 
man  has  grown  worse  every  year  that  he  has  lived, 
we  ail  see  and  know.  That  he  was  a  disobedient 
child,  that  he  was  lawless  and  ungrateful  to  his 
father,  that  he  was  an  unkind  brother,  that  he 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  *  *  ? 

stung  every  man  who  was  a  benefactor  to  his 
youth,  that  he  had  inordinate  desire  for  unholy 
notoriety,  that  his  vanity  was  boundless  and  that 
his  malice  was  still  more  unbounded,  we  all  know. 
All  this  he  was  in  early  life.  And  I  shall  now  call 
your  attention  to  some  of  the  evidences  that  he  was 
growing  worse  and  worse  until  his  career  culmin 
ated  in  cold  blooded  assassination.  There  is  a 
self-propagating  property  in  sin  and  vice  and 
crime  until  the  man  becomes  (not  by  disease,  but 
by  culture)  what  Dr.  Spitzka  calls  a  "  moral  mon 
strosity." 

''That  is  bosh,  and  you  know  it,  Porter,"  the 
prisoner  exclaimed. 

After  some  further  discussion  Mr.  Porter  went 
on  with  his  argument.  He  asked  who  it  was  that 
killed  President  Garfield. 

"The  doctors,"  shouted  the  prisoner. 

Mr.  Porter :  "  The  doctors,"  responds  the  pris 
oner. 

Prisoner:  That  is  what  most  people  think 
about  it. 

Mr.  Porter:  Has  not  the  defense  that  the 
doctors  killed  him  been  abandoned? 

Prisoner:  The  Lord  allowed  them  to  confirm 
my  act:  They  were  the  immediate  cause  of  his 
death. 

Mr.  Porter:  I  am  afraid  the  prisoner  has  not 
the  latest  intelligence  from  heaven,  for  he  said 
that  the  inspiration  left  him  an  hour  after  he  killed 
40* 


474 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


the  President.  Who  killed  Garfield  ?  The  pris 
oner  says  "Secretary  Elaine."  He  says,  in  his 
testimony,  "  Secretary  Elaine  is  responsible  for 
the  murder  of  President  Garfield." 

Prisoner:  I  said,  ''morally  responsible,"  sir. 

Mr.  Porter:  Who  else  is  responsible  for  the 
death  of  Garfield?  Mrs.  Garfield;  because  the 
prisoner  swears  that  when  he  saw  that  honored 
lady  leaning  on  her  husband's  arm  her  presence 
on  that  occasion  saved  his  life ;  and  so  if  she  had 
been  with  him  on  the  2d  of  July  the  prisoner 
would  not  have  shot  President  Garfield. 

Referring  to  Mr.  Reed's  suggestion  about  Mrs. 
Garfield  praying  in  behalf  of  the  prisoner,  Mr. 
Porter  said :  Imagine  what  sort  of  scenes  these 
are  that  counsel  thus  brings  up.  Imagine  the  aged 
mother  of  the  President  coming  before  you  draped 
in  black.  Imagine,  according  to  the  old  custom 
of  the  English  laws,  this  trial  taking  place  in  the 
presence  of  the  corpse  of  Garfield,  mutilated  by 
the  murderer,  wrapped  in  white  linen,  through 
which  it  was  supposed  the  mere  approach  of  the 
murderer  would  start  the  blood  to  flow.  Imagine 
Garfield  lying  there,  not  one  of  the  sections  of 
his  backbone,  but  the  whole  man,  cold  in  death, 
with  the  death-sweat  not  yet  dry  on  his  brow, 
with  the  expression  of  agony  which  this  prisoner 
put  there  and  with  the  cowering  assassin  yonder 
shrinking  from  approach  to  the  body  which  was 
required  by  the  old  process  oi  bier-rite.  Im- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


a^ine  the  ao-ed   mother,  who  had  looked  to  that 

*^>  o 

son  to  close  her  eyes  in  death,  bowing  with  grief 
at  the  coffin  head  with  Mrs.  Garfield,  whose  lips 
were  the  last  that  touched  the  cold  lips  of  the 
President,  sitting  at  his  feet  in  dust  and  ashes.  If 
in  such  a  scene  Mr.  Charles  H.  Reed  stood  up 
and  said,  "The  woman  who  seems  to  you  to  be 
kneeling  only  to  God  in  her  sorrow  is  kneeling  to 
God  in  prayer  that  this  murderer  shall  be  dealt 
with  leniently,"  what  would  you  think  of  it? 

Who  else  killed  Garfield  ?  John  H.  Noyes,  says 
the  prisoner.  He  killed  Garfield.  Who  else 
killed  Garfield?  The  prisoner's  father?  —  that 
father  whom  he  struck  from  behind  when  he  was 
eighteen  years  of  age?  Who  else  killed  Garfield? 
The  mother  of  this  prisoner,  who  was  guilty  of 
the  inordinte  atrocity  of  having  a  temporary  at 
tack  of  erysipelas  just  before  he  was  born  and 
leaving  him  an  inheritance  of  congenital  monstro 
sity.  Who  else  killed  Garfield?  This  prisoner's 
drunken  and  dissolute  uncle  Abraham  who,  al 
though  he  was  never  insane  himself,  transmitted 
insanity  to  the  prisoner,  though  he  was  not  his 
father,  nor  his  mother,  nor  his  grandfather,  nor 
his  grandmother.  Who  else  killed  Garfield  ?  The 
prisoner's  cousin,  Abby  Maynard. 

Prisoner  :  If  all  these  people  killed  General  Gar- 
field  you  had  better  discharge  this  indictment. 

Mr.  Porter:  Who  else  killed  Garfield?  All 
these  do  not  seem  to  have  been  enough  to  kill 


476  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

him.  Who  else  killed  Garfield  ?  The  Chicago 
Convention  which  nominated  him  for  the  Presi 
dency.  The  prisoner  says:  "His  nomination  was 
an  act  of  God,  and  if  he  had  not  been  nominated 
and  elected  I  could  not  have  killed  him."  The 
prisoner  claims  that  he  was  appointed  by  God  to 
kill  him — he,  with  his  swindling  record — he,  a  liar 
from  the  beginning — he  who  struck  his  father, 
who  lifted  an  axe  against  his  sister,  who  struck  his 
brother — he  was  commissioned  to  correct  the  act 
of  the  Convention  and  of  the  people  by  murder 
ing  the  President.  These  are  the  defenses  put 
forward  by  this  praying  prisoner,  and  by  his  pray 
ing  counsel  in  order  to  divert  your  attention  from 
the  fact  that  the  man  who  killed  Garfield  sits  there 
(pointing  at  the  dock),  and  although  Garfield  is 
dead,  the  prisoner  speaks  and  has  spoken  on  the 
witness-stand  those  words  which  prove  him  to  be 
not  only  the  assassin,  but  the  meditating,  delib 
erate,  sane  and  responsible  assassin  of  the  Presi 
dent. 

But  that  is  not  enough.  The  press  killed  Gar- 
field.  The  press  is  solemnly  indicted  by  the  mur 
derer  and  his  associate  counsel — indicted  without 
the  formality  of  a  grand  jury,  accused  by  the  oath 
of  the  murderer,  found  guilty  by  the  murderer, 
charged  with  responsibility  by  the  murderer.  But 
fortunately  he  no  longer  holds  the  "bull-dog" 
pistol  in  his  hands,  and  the  press  is  only  to  be 
convicted  of  the  murder  of  Garfield  by  the  bad 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARF1ELD. 


tongue  of  a  murderous  liar.  This  man  slaught 
ered  Garfield  as  he  would  have  slaughtered  a  calf. 

"  The  doctors  did  that,"  said  the  prisoner,  and 
having  disposed  of  him  in  that  way,  in  comes  his 
counsel  and  charges  with  the  crime  those  who 
occupy  too  lofty  a  position  to  notice  the  vipers  that 
said  it,  and  who  would  have  degraded  the  dignity 
of  their  office  by  noticing  it.  One  of  them  is  a 
distinguished  American  Senator,  who,  at  this  mo 
ment,  (except  that  he  was  too  proud  and  too  lofty 
to  accept  the  office),  would  be  sitting  as  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  Such  a  man  is  to-day  arraigned  before 
an  American  jury,  and  arraigned  not  by  the  crim 
inal,  but  by  the  criminal's  defender  ("Without  my 
knowledge,"  interposed  the  prisoner),  as  responsi 
ble  for  the  murder  of  Garfield. 

Another  of  those  whom  he  arraigned  is  a  man 
.more  honored  in  the  Confederate  States  than  any 
American,  save  their  own  cherished  leader,  Gen 
eral  Lee;  a  man  who  is  honored  in  the  Northern 
States  for  services  rendered  —  first  in  war  and  af 
terward  in  reconciling  the  difficulties  which  grew 
out  of  the  war  ;  a  man  elevated  to  conspicuous 
position,  the  successor  of  Washington  and  Jeffer 
son,  Jackson  and  Lincoln  ;  one  who,  after  he  left 
that  place,  was  welcomed  in  every  European  and 
Oriental  land  as  one  of  the  noblest  men  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century.  That  man  is  arraigned  by 
the  lawyer  of  Guiteau  ("  But  not  by  Guiteau,"  in- 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


terruptcd  the  prisoner)  as  responsible  for  the 
murder  of  General  Garfield.  More  than  that,  we 
have  the  President  of  the  United  States  - 

Prisoner  :  Made  so  by  the  inspiration  of  Gui- 
teau.  Don't  you  forget  that,  Mr.  Porter.  You 
do  not  represent  him  here  either. 

Mr.  Porter:  The  successor  of  Garfield  and 
Hayes  and  Lincoln  and  Jackson  and  Jefferson  and 
Adams  and  Washington,  elevated  to  that  position 
not  by  an  assassin,  but  by  the  voice  of  his  count 
rymen.  And  when  this  creature  says,  "  I  made 
Arthur  President,"  he  forgets  that  General  Arthur 
was  made  President  by  the  voice  of  his  country 
men,  by  that  very  voice  which  made  Garfield  Presi 
dent.  This  man  told  you  in  his  speech  last 
Saturday  that  Garfield  might  have  died  from  any 
other  cause  ;  that  he  might  have  trod  on  an  orange 
peel  and  received  an  injury  which  might  have 
caused  his  death,  or  that  he  might  have  trod  upon 
a  rattlesnake  whose  fangs  might  have  pierced  his 
heel.  Was  it  the  orange  peel  or  the  rattlesnake 
that  made  Arthur  President?  ("Neither,"  said 
the  prisoner).  Both  —  because  the  prisoner  has 
shown  himself  all  his  life  as  slippery  as  the  orange 
peel  and  as  venomous  as  the  rattlesnake. 

Prisoner  :  That  is  false  and  you  know  it. 

Mr.  Porter:  But  in  one  respect  meaner  than 
the  rattlesnake,  for  Providence  has  provided  in 
respect  of  that  reptile  that  there  shall  be  a  warn 
ing  at  one  end,  but  the  venom  at  the  other.  This 


BRA  R rp 
OF  THE 


UNIVERSITY 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


481 


was  a  rattlesnake  without  the  rattle,  but  not  with 
out  the  fangs,  and  when  he  tells  you  that  he  made 
General  Arthur  President  of  the  United  States  he 
made  him  President  in  just  the  same  sense  in 
which  the  rattlesnake  might  have  done  it  by  in 
troducing  into  President  Garfield's  veins  that 
venom  which  in  eighty  days  would  bring  him  down 
to  the  grave. 

Passing  on  to  criticise  Mr.  Reed's  argument 
and  his  illustration  as  to  Christ  casting  out  devils 
and  healing  lunatics.  Mr.  Porter  said:  The 
Saviour  made  a  distinction  between  the  sick,  the 
lunatic  and  those  possessed  of  devils.  The  claim 
here  is  that  this  man  was  so  enormously  wicked 
as  to  be,  in  the  language  of  Dr.  Spitzka,  a  moral 
monstrosity.  He  represents  the  class  of  which 
the  Saviour  spoke,  not  lunatics,  but  possessed  of 
the  devil.  A  man  who  was  possessed  by  the 
devil  once  came  to  the  Saviour  and  prayed  to  be 
delivered.  The  Saviour  granted  his  prayer  and 
commanded  the  devil  to  say  who  he  was.  "  My 
name,"  said  the  devil,  "is  Legion."  And  he 
prayed  to  be  allowed  to  go  into  a  herd  of  swine, 
because  even  devils  go  through  the  form  of 
prayers. 

"Then  it  is  time  for  you  to  pray,"  said  the 
prisoner. 

Mr.  Porter:  The  Saviour  consented.  What  be 
came  of  the  swine  after  Legion  had  entered  the 
herd  ?  "  They  rushed  down  a  steep  place  into  the 


4g2  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

sea  and  were  choked."  Whether  the  devil  that 
possesses  this  man  is  or  is  not  to  be  choked  by 
the  law  you  are  to  determine.  But  the  destina 
tion  of  diabolism  such  as  his,  was  thought  by  the 
Saviour  to  be  fittingly  the  swine,  and  the  ultimate 
destination  even  of  the  swine  was  to  be  choked 
in  the  water. 

Prisoner :  If  you  don't  stop  drinking  wine  the 
devil  will  choke  you.  You  will  go  into  a  drunk 
ard's  grave  yet. 

Mr.  Porter :  I  shall  not  further  discuss  these  col 
lateral  issues.  I  desire  you  to  recollect  though,  that 
it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  you  are  (as  in  one  of 
those  weak  and  feeble  arguments  you  have  been 
told  you  were  in  a  spirit  of  obsequious  flattery) 
twelve  kings  and  emperors.  You  are  no  more 
kings,  gentlemen,  than  Messrs.  Scoville  and  Reed 
are  kings.  If  that  had  come  from  Scoville,  I  would 
say  it  had  a  cheating  purpose  ;  but  as  it  came  from 
Reed,  I  will  only  say  that  they  did  not  teach  him 
his  lesson  well.  What  was  the  purpose?  The 
purpose  was  to  lead  you  to  suppose  that  you  can 
override  the  Judge  and  the  law ;  that  you  are  at 
liberty  to  override  the  instructions  of  the  Court 
and  to  find  your  verdict,  or  refuse  to  find  it,  on 
the  ground  of  speculative  doubts  not  warranted 
by  the  evidence,  but  based  on  your  own  view  of 
the  prisoner,  or  on  evidence  which  has  not  been 
submitted. 

Here  the  Court  took  a  recess  for  half  an  hour. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


483 


After  the  recess  Mr.  Porter  resumed  his  argu 
ment.  Referring  to  the  prisoner's  desire  for 
notoriety  he  said  that  he  had  made  himself  illus 
trious  by  having  his  hand  stained  by  illustrious 
blood.  That  man  undertook  to  award  immortal 
ity  to  the  jury,  or  immortality  to  the  Judge,  and 
he  had,  through  his  counsel,  told  them  that  their 
names  would  go  down  blackened  unless  they 
violated  their  oaths,  and  that  his  (Mr.  Porter's) 
name  was  to  go  down  blackened  unless  he  came 
to  the  rescue  of  the  prisoner. 

Prisoner :  I  never  said  so. 

Mr.  Porter:  He  tells  you  that  even  the  Presi 
dent  and  the  great  men  of  the  country  must  take 
heed,  that  even  God  Almighty  must  take  heed 
how  He  acts  towards  him.  He  tells  you  that,  at 
all  events,  he  is  satisfied  so  far  with  what  the  Al 
mighty  has  done,  and  that  he  expects  before  the 
trial  is  done  that  if  it  is  necessary  the  Almighty 
will  take  one  of  you,  gentlemen,  or  will  take  me, 
or  will  take  each  one  of  us  rather  than  that  he 
shall  be  struck  down.  The  drama  is  well  played, 
gentlemen.  This  man  is  an  actor.  While  in  jail 
he  has  borne  his  natural  part,  but  here  he  has  been 
constantly  on  the  stage  posing  for  you  and  carry 
ing  out  the  suggestions  of  his  counsel.  This  man 
is  neither  a  crowned  nor  an  uncrowned  king. 
Although  he  has  sworn  to  you  repeatedly  that 
he  was  prepared  to  meet  his  God  there  is  not 
a  soul  in  this  vast  assemblage  who  shrinks 


434  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

•with'  such  abject  cowardice  from  confronting  the 
Deity. 

Prisoner:  That  is  absolutely  false,  Porter,  and 
you  know  it.  You  are  an  infernal  scoundrel,  and 
God  Almighty  will  put  you  down  below,  too,  with 
Corkhill  (snappishly,  to  the  bailiff  at  his  side: 
"You  mind  your  own  business,  sir.")  Such  a  mis 
erable,  stinking  whine  as  that  is  ! 

Mr.  Porter  then  went  on  to  discuss  the  points 
of  law  as  laid  down  by  Judge  Cox.  After  that  he 
took  up  again  the  question  of  the  responsibility 
of  the  prisoner.  What  household,  he  said,  would 
be  safe,  what  church  would  protect  its  worship 
ers,  if  this  man  were  to  escape  on  the  plea  of 
irresponsibility?  Is  it  true  that  any  man  who  has 
had  an  insane  cousin,  an  insane  uncle,  an  insane 
aunt,  or  an  insane  ancestor,  and  who  is  not  him 
self  insane,  but  knows  perfectly  that  murder  is 
legally  and  morally  wrong,  is  to  escape  punish 
ment?  May  he  stab,  or  shoot,  or  waylay,  or 
murder  in  any  form  by  day  or  by  night,  and  then 
claim  in  his  vindication,  not  that  he  is  insane  him 
self,  but  that  somebody  else  was?  If  so  what  is 
human  life  worth? 

Nay,  more,  if  it  were  true  that  every  insane 
man,  no  matter  in  what  degree,  no  matter  whether 
from  melancholia,  or  from  any  of  these  casual  or 
occasional  aberrations  of  mind,  is  at  liberty  to 
commit  burglary,  to  fire  your  dwelling  houses,  to 
set  the  city  of  Washington  on  fire  when  the  frost 


ASSASSM  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  *  g  * 

shall  stiffen  the  water  and  when  fire  is  destruction, 
to  ravish  your  daughters,  what  security  is  there? 

Nay,  more.  The  insane  of  this  country  (I  mean 
the  undoubted  insane,  who  are  inmates  of  lunatic 
asylums)  are  to  learn  from  the  verdict  in  this  case, 
if  the  theory  of  the  defense  shall-  be  sustained,  that 
each  of  them  is  at  liberty  to  murder  the  keeper 
who  restrains  him ;  that  they  are  all  at  liberty  to 
confederate  to  open  the  gates  of  the  asylums  and 
to  go  out,  knife  and  torch  in  hand,  and  spread  ruin 
and  conflagration  in  every  direction,  and  although 
the  law  forbids  it  an  American  jury  can  be  found 
that  will  sanction  the  act. 

Prisoner :  That  is  very  fine,  but  it  is  all  bosh. 

Was  this  man  insane  on  the  2d  of  July?  If  he 
was  not  you  have  but  one  duty,  and  that  is  to  con 
vict  him.  I  aver  that  he  never  was  insane,  and 
certainly  not  on  the  2d  of  July.  On  that  point 
the  principal  claim  by  the  prisoner  and  his  counsel 
is  the  atrocity  of  this  particular  act.  I  do  not  deny 
his  claim  of  being  the  most  cold-blooded  and  sav 
age  murderer  of  the  last  six  thousand  years,  But 
he  is  not  alone,  as  he  will  find  when  he  comes  to 
those  realms  where  murderers  are  consigned. 
The  first  born  of  the  human  race  murdered  the 
second  born. 

Murder  has  existed  in  all  ages.  Four  thou 
sand  years  ago  there  was  inscribed  on  tables  of 
stone  the  command  to  all  people: — " Thou -shalt  not 
kill."  But  Guiteau  sas  that  life  is  of  small  con- 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

sideration.  He  says  in  one  of  his  letters  of  con 
solation  to  the  widow: — "Life  is  but  a  fleeting 
dream.  His  death  might  have  happened  at  any 
time."  As  he  told  you  the  other  day  Mr.  Garfield 
might  have  trod  on  an  orange-peel  or  trod  on  a 
rattlesnake.  But  the  Lawgiver  of  the  universe 
entertained  different  views  on  the  value  of  human 
life  when  he  said,  "  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood, 
by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed." 

Prisoner:  That  was  three  or  four  thousand 
years  ago.  We  have  new  laws  since  then. 

Mr.  Porter:  And  that  man  in  the  dock  tells 
you  that  the  same  God  that  placed  that  value  on 
human  life  placed  no  value  on  the  life  of  James 
A.  Garfield,  and  that  as  to  that  life,  it  was  but  of 
small  value — it  was  a  "fleeting  dream."  We 
have  had  the  gospel  of  Guiteau,  and  he  thinks 
that  jury  will  indorse  his  gospel. 

I  do  not  deny  that  there  are  hereditary  ten 
dencies  to  insanity.  There  is  one  order  of  insanity 
called  by  this  prisoner  "Abrahamic,"  called  by  him 
at  other  times  "temporary  mania,"  and  called  by 
Dr.  Spitzka  "moral  insanity."  That  moral  insanity, 
according  to  Dr.  Barker,  consists  in  wickedness,  and 
is  inherited,  not  from  a  natural  parent,  but  from 
'another  source.  That  is  the  insanity  which  this 
man  has  inherited.  The  man  is  a  liar  as  well  as 
an  assassin  and  he  was  instigated  not  by  the 
Almighty,  but  by  the  devil. 

Mr.  Porter  went  on  to  refer  to  the  prisoner's 


OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


487 


life  In  Washington,  living  at  first-class  boarding 
houses  at  the  expense  of  the  keepers  of  the  house, 
punctual  at  breakfast,  at  dinner,  at  tea;  careful  to 
take  baths,  punctual  at  night,  sleeping  well,  eating 
heartily,  rising  early  and  spending  the  day  at 
Lafayette  Square,  or  in  making  preparations  to 
murder  the  President  when  he  should  have  a  fav 
orable  opportunity.  Was  this,  he  asked,  temporary 
mania  ?  Gentlemen,  if  I  went  no  further,  do  you 
believe  this  man's  brain  was  diseased?  I  deal 
with  nothing  else  now.  Was  his  brain  diseased? 

o 

And  did  the  disease  come  and  go  according  to 
whether  President  Garfield  went  out  alone,  or  went 
out  with  his  wife,  or  went  out  with  his  children,  or 
went  to  the  Soldier's  Home,  or  went  to  the  railroad 
depot  ?  Do  you  believe  that  the  right  remedy  for 
a  disease  of  the  brain  is  to  make  six  weeks'  pre 
paration  for  an  assassination,  and  that  shooting 
another  man  through  the  spine  is  a  cure  for  the 
disease?  That  is  the  case  as  the  prisoner  makes 
it  out. 

Prisoner:  If  I  were  the  President  of  the  United 
States  and  had  ruined  the  Republican  party  as 
Garfield  had  I  ought  to  be  shot.  That  is  my 
opinion  about  that,  and  it  is  the  opinion  of  a  great 
many  people,  too. 

Mr.  Porter  went  on  to  argue  against  the  claim 
of  the  prisoner's  insanity.  Referring  to  the  testi 
mony  of  Mrs.  Scoville,  he  paid  her  a  compliment 
as  a  sincere  woman  and  said  that  she  had  never 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  7    GUI7EAU, 


noticed  insanity  in  the  prisoner  until  the  time  when 
he  raised  the  axe  upon  her,  when  he  was  thirty- 
five  years  of  age. 

Prisoner:  That  never  occurred. 

A  further  reference  by  Mr.  Porter  to  the  inci 
dent  of  the  axe  brought  from  the  prisoner  this 
remark:  "It  was  a  very  stupid  thing  for  Scoville 
to  bring  in  that  axe  matter  at  all.  He  might  have 
known  the  use  the  prosecution  would  have  made 
out  of  it.  That  is  about  as  smart  as  the  Scoville 
family  are.  The  whole  thing  is  bosh  from  begin 
ning  to  end." 

Mr.  Porter  went  on  to  criticise  the  testimony 
of  Reed,  of  Amerling  and  of  North.  He  said  that 
it  would  take  a  thousand  Norths  to  make  him  be 
lieve  that  Luther  W.  Guiteau,  that  calm,  quiet, 
religious  man,  ever  said  to  an  old  father  and 
an  old  mother  who  had  an  only  son  that  did 
not  want  them  to  go  to  the  Oneida  Community, 
"Take  a  knife  and  slay  him,  as  Abraham  did 
Isaac." 

Wednesday,  January  25th,  was  the  third  day  of 
the  eleventh  week  of  the  famous  trial,  and  it  was 
conceded  to  be  the  stormiest  day,  so  far  as  inter 
ruptions  and  brutality  on  Guiteau's  part  were 
concerned.  He  made  an  opening  statement  as 
usual,  after  which  Mr.  Porter  proceeded  with  his 
address.  He  touched  upon  the  testimony  of  Dr. 
North  and  of  John  W.  Guiteau  as  of  no  weight  in 
determining  an  insane  condition  of  the  .  prisoner. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  CARFIELD. 


489 


•During  much  of  this  discussion  Guiteau  was 
answering  Mr.  Porter,  sentence  by  sentence  in  the 
most  insolent  manner,  as  for  example : 

Mr.  Porter,  referring  to  a  copy  of  a  handbill  of 
one  of  Guiteau's.  lectures,  read  therefrom  "  Hon. 
Charles  J.  Guiteau." 

Prisoner :  That  is  the  way  my  letters  come 
now. 

Mr.  Porter:  I  pass  that  with  no  words  of 
comment. 

Prisoner:  You  haven't  brains  enough  to  com 
ment  on  it. 

In  the  course  of  his  review  of  John  W.  Gui 
teau's  testimony  Mr.  Porter  exclaimed,  sarcasti 
cally,  quoting  a  remark  of  the  prisoner,  "The 
Lord  murdered  Garfield !" 

Prisoner:  Yes,  and  he  will  murder  you. 

Mr.  Porter  then  went  into  an  exhaustive  review 
of  that  portion  of  J.  W.  Guiteau's  testimony  which 
refers  to  a  quarrel  between  his  brother  and  him 
self. 

Prisoner,  excitedly:  Porter  thinks  I  am  a  man 
of  depravity,  who  fought  with  my  brother  and  my 
father  and  tried  to  kill  my  sister.  That's  all  bosh. 
It  only  shows  the  mean,  dirty  spirit  of  this  man 
Porter.  A  saint  from  heaven  could  not  stand  it 
to  be  abused  by  this  man  Porter,  and  I  can't  stand 
it.  I  will  relieve  my  mind  and  tell  what  I  think 
about  it.  I  have  always  been  a  peaceable  man 
and  I  never  quarrelled  with  anybody.  It  is  a 


490 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


perfect  outrage  for  you  to  come  and  bulldoze 
that  jury  by  saying  I  am  a  fighting  man.  It  is 
a  lie. 

Mr.  Porter :  It  is  on  the  authority  of  his  brother's 
oath. 

Prisoner :  He  is  no  brother  of  mine ;  we  were 
not  on  speaking  terms.  It  is  mean  for  you  to 
come  and  put  that  man  up  as  my  brother.  I 
would  not  have  spoken  to  him  at  the  Fifth  Avenue 
Hotel  last  spring.  I  don't  like  his  style  or  my 
father's  style.  My  sister  sympathized  with  me 
and  my  brother  sympathized  with  my  father. 

Comments  on  the  trial,  by  the  English  press,  were 
next  touched  upon,  also  the  prisoner's  fight  with 
his  father  and  his  objection  to  his  father's  second 
marriage,  during  all  of  which  there  were  constant 
interruptions,  the  prisoner  finally  shouting  to  Mr. 
Porter :  You  do  not  represent  the  Attorney-Gen 
eral.  He  was  on  the  bench  yesterday  and  he  did 
not  condescend  to  notice  you.  He  has  nothing 
but  the  utmost  contempt  for  you,  Porter.  He 
thinks  you  a  low,  dirty  dog,  and  that  is  the  opinion 
of  the  American  people,  and  mine,  too. 

Mr.  Porter,  alluding  to  an  insulting  reflection 
on  one  of  the  witnesses  as  a  Jew,  said ;  It  is  no 
dishonor  to  any  man  to  be  the  countryman  of  the 
Redeemer  of  mankind.  The  one  wTho  sin^s  from 

o 

week  to  week  in  the  church  the  songs  of  David 
of  Israel,  the  one  who  consults  the  wisdom  of  Solo 
mon,  the  man  who  honors  the  name  of  Saul,  the 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


one  who  professes  to  reverence  —  as  this  man  does 
—  Abraham,  the  progenitor  of  Christianity  - 

Prisoner,  interrupting  :  That  is  very  fine.  But 
the  Lord  and  the  Jews  had  a  falling  out  at  the  de 
struction  of  Jerusalem,  and  He  has  been  down 
upon  them  ever  since.  True,  nowadays  they  are 
a  good  sort  of  people.  The  Jews  are  all  right. 

Mr.  Porter  :  But  it  is  convenient  for  the  pur 
poses  of  the  defense  in  this  case  to  cast  discredit 
on  this  witness  Edwards,  and  so  Mr.  Scoville,  with 
the  decency  of  his  client,  circumcises  Edwards  in 
the  presence  of  this  court. 

After  further  exciting  discussion  on  unessential 

o 

points,  Guiteau  cried  out  :  Porter  has  kept  up  an 
extraordinary  storm  of  abuse  against  me,  and  a 
saint  from  heaven  would  swear  at  the  unmitigated 
abuse  which  he  has  put  forward  this  morning.  He 
does  not  represent  the  President  or  the  Attorney- 
General,  or  anybody  else  except  Porter.  He  is 
here  for  blood-money,  and  he  is  trying  to  fool  the 
jury,  but  he  cannot  do  it. 

The  testimony  of  Drs.  Kiernan  and  Spitzka 
were  then  reviewed,  Guiteau  constantly  interject 
ing  the  most  abusive  remarks. 

o 

Commenting  on  Mr.  Reed's  allusion  to  Char 
lotte  Corday  Mr.  Porter  said:  The  world  had 
lived  since  the  year  of  the  French  Revolution  in 
ignorance  of  the  fact  that  the  beautiful  Charlotte 
Corday  was  insane.  It  was  left  to  Mr.  Reed  to 
announce  that  fact.  She  cannot  turn  in  her  grave 


492 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


to  belie  it;  but  there  are  some  of  us  who  know 
something  of  the  history  of  that  wonderful  woman's 
true  patriotism,  which  led  to  an  assassination  that 
was  justified  if  ever  an  assassination  was  justified. 

Prisoner :  You  would  have  hung  her  if  you  had 
been  there. 

Mr.  Porter:  She  was  no  sneaking  coward.  She 
left  the  house  in  which  she  was  reared  to  deliver 
France,  to  stay  the  hand  of  revolutionary  slaughter, 
to  lay  her  own  head  beneath  the  guillotine,  in 
order  to  save  the  effusion  of  blood.  She  believed 
it  to  be  her  duty  to  the  France  she  loved,  and  she 
made  her  way  with  deliberate  preparation,  sane  in 
mind  and  devoted  in  purpose,  ready  to  die  that 
others  might  live,  and  she  succeeded  in  finding  her 
way  to  the  man  who  had  in  his  right  hand  the  lives 
of  millions  of  Frenchmen,  and  who  by  jotting  a 
mark  of  blood  opposite  the  name  could  hurry  men 
into  a  dismal,  dark  dungeon,  from  which  there 
was  no  escape  except  through  the  guillotine.  She 
devoted  herself  to  the  work,  not  after  providing 
for  her  own  safety,  not  with  the  idea  of  securing 
rewards  from  others 

Here  the  prisoner  broke  out  into  wild  exclama 
tions,  of  which  only  the  following  were  intelligible: 
"  God  Almighty  will  follow  you  up,  Porter.  Those 
are  my  sentiments  about  this  murder;  I  am  not 
afraid  to  die.  God  Almighty  will  smite  you  and 
curse  you.  You  are  a  liar." 

Mr.  Porter:  This  prisoner  and  his  counsel  made 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


493 


the  discovery  at  the  Corcoran  Art  Gallery  that 
Charlotte  Corday,  who  will  live  immortal  in  his 
tory  as  one  ready  to  give  her  own  life  for  the 
country 

Prisoner,  interrupting:  That  is  me  and  don't 
you  forget  it,  you  old  whelp. 

Mr.  Porter  (finishing  the  sentence) — was  insane. 
Forsooth,  Mr.  Reed  would  place  this  murderer  by 
the  side  of  that  girl  who  gave  her  life  that  others 
might  live. 

Prisoner,  ferociously:  God  Almighty  will  curse 
you,  Porter;  (to  the  Deputy  Marshal,  who  at 
tempted  to  restrain  him) — Sit  down  and  mind 
your  own  business.  If  you  lay  a  finger  upon  me 
a  pistol  will  fix  you.  I  will  talk  as  much  as  I 
please.  Porter  knows  that  he  is  lying  every  word 
he  says.  He  is  trying  to  make  out  that  I  am  not 
a  patriot.  I  am  willing  to  die  to-morrow  if  neces 
sary,  and. God  Almighty  will  revenge  my  death. 
This  nation  will  roll  in  blood  if  a  hair  of  my  head 
is  harmed,  and  that  man  Porter  will  be  ahead  of 
the  crowd  down  below. 

Mr.  Porter,  to  the  jury:  Do  you  think  that  that 
was  the  way  that  Charlotte  Corday  talked  ? 

Prisoner :  You  know  nothing  about  it,  you  old, 
dirty  whelp. 

Mr.  Porter:  When  she  was  called  to  execution 
she  rose  from  her  knees  with  a  crucifix  clasped  to 
her   breast.      The  case  of  Booth  was   next    re 
viewed  by  Mr.  Porter,  who  concluded  as  follows : 
42 


404  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAL, 

True,  Booth  shot  from  behind,  but  he  felt  that 
he  was  putting  his  life  in  peril,  for  he  was  in  a 
crowded  audience,  and  yet  with  the  instincts  of 
manhood  and  believing  or  feeling  that  he  might 
be  justified  by  his  countrymen,  he  leaped  upon  the 
stage,  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  for  life  or  for 
death — he  rode  to  death — and  within  the  blazing 
flames  of  the  building  in  which  he  was  penned,  as 
God  pens  murderers,  he  still  presented  the  lion 
front  of  a  brave  man,  and  although  crippled  in 
body  he  died  like  a  stag  at  bay.  But  this  man 

Prisoner :  I  shot  my  man  in  broad  daylight. 

Mr.  Porter,  continuing :  This  coward,  this  dis 
appointed  office-seeker 

Prisoner :  You  are  a  liar  and  you  know  it. 

Mr.  Porter,  finishing  the  sentence :  This  malig 
nant,  diabolical,  crafty,  calculating,  cold-blooded 
murderer,  providing  for  death  to  his  victim,  and 
'  for  safety  to  himself;  would  you  compare  him 
with  Wilkes  Booth  ? 

Prisoner:  I  should  not.  The  comparison  is  in 
my  favor.  You  are  a  nice  orator.  Booth  and 
you  will  go  down  together,  both  of  you  below. 

Mr.  Porter :  The  leading  spirit  of  the  man  has 
been,  first,  greed  of  money  and  the  greed  of  repu 
tation.  When  Horace  Greeley  was  a  candidate 
for  the  Presidency  this  man  was  at  his  heels,  an 
applicant  for  the  mission  to  Chili. 

Prisoner :  That  is  false. 

Mr.  Porter:    If  Mr.  Greeley  had  been  elected 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  CARFIELD. 


495 


and  the  Chilean  mission  had  been  refused  to  this 
man  he  would  have  got  a  bulldog  pistol  and  sent 
a  cartridge  into  the  back  of  Horace  Greeley. 

Prisoner:  You  know  that  that  is  an  absolute, 
wicked,  venomous,  devilish  lie. 

Mr.  Porter  next  dwelt  upon  the  opinion  of 
the  experts  that  the  prisoner  never  was  insane. 

The  Court  here  took  a  recess,  and  after  reas 
sembling,  Mr.  Porter  resumed  his  argument.  He 
proceeded  to  analyze  the  testimony,  the  various 
interruptions  and  the  speech  of  the  prisoner  to 
the  jury,  commenting  on  various  sentences  as  he 
went  along.  He  was  met  by  constant  interrup 
tions  and  virulent  remarks  by  the  prisoner.  At 
times  counsel  and  prisoner  were  both  speaking  at 
the  same  time.  Mr.  Porter  quoted  from  some 
scenes  in  "  Othello,"  between  lago  and  Roderigo, 
in  order  to  show  that  the  prisoner  had  found  in 
Shakespeare  the  idea  of  softening  down  the  name 
of  murder  into  "  removal,"  but  the  prisoner  re 
peatedly  denied  that  he  had  ever  consulted  Shake 
speare  on  the  subject. 

Passing  on  to  the  theory  of  transitory  mania, 
Mr.  Porter  read  from  one  of  the  prisoner's  ex 
clamations  :  "  I  repudiate  the  theory  of  Mr.  Sco- 
ville.  I  am  not  insane  now,  and  I  never  pretended 
that  I  was."  Here  the  prisoner  shouted,  "  I  was 
insane  on  the  2d  of  July." 

Almost  every  other  sentence  that  was  uttered 
by  Mr.  Porter  was  retorted  to  by  the  prisoner, 


496  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

until  finally  Mr.  Porter  proceed   to  close  his  argu 
ment,  which  he  did  as  follows  : 

Gentlemen,  the  time  has  come  when  I  must 
close,  The  government  has  presented  its  case 
before  you,  and  we  have  endeavored  to  discharge 
our  duty  to  the  best  of  our  abilities.  His  Honor 
has  endeavored  to  discharge  his.  I  know  that  you 
will  be  faithful  to  your  oaths  and  discharge  yours. 
So  discharge  it  that,  by  your  action  at  least, 
political  assassination  shall  find  no  sanction  to 
make  it  a  precedent  hereafter.  He  who  has 
ordained  that  human  life  shall  be  shielded  by  hu 
man  law  from  human  crime  preside  over  your 
deliberations,  and  the  verdict  which  shall  be  given 
or  withheld  to-day  will  be  recorded  where  we  all 
have  to  appear.  I  trust  that  that  verdict  will  be 
prompt,  that  it  will  represent  the  majesty  of  the 
law,  your  integrity  and  the  'honor  *of  the  country, 
and  that  this  trial,  which  has  so  deeply  interested 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  may  result  in  a  warn 
ing — to  reach  all  lands — that  political  murder 
shall  not  be  used  as  a  means  of  promoting  party 
ends  or  political  revolutions.  I  trust  also  that  the 
time  shall  come,  in  consequence  of  the  attention 
that  shall  be  called  to  the  considerations  growing 
out  of  this  trial,  when,  by  an  international  arrange 
ment  between  the  various  governments,  the  law 
shall  be  so  strengthened  that  political  assassins 
shall  find  no  refuge  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CHARGE   OF   JUDGE   COX. 

JUDGE  COX,  at  fifteen  minutes  past  three, 
p.  m.,  proceeded  to  deliver  his  charge  to  the 
jury.  He  commenced  by  saying  that  the 
Constitution  provides  that  in  all  criminal  prosecu 
tions  the  accused  shall  enjoy  the  right  of  a  speedy 
and  public  trial ;  that  he  shall  be  informed  of  the 
cause  and  the  nature  of  the  accusation  against 
him;  that  he  shall  be  confronted  with  the  wit 
nesses  against  him ;  that  he  shall  have  compulsory 
process  to  obtain  witnesses  in  his  favor  and  that 
he  shall  have  assistance  of  counsel  in  his  defense. 
Those  provisions  were  intended  for  the  protection 
of  the  innocent  from  injustice  and  oppression. 
With  what  difficulty  and  trouble  the  law  had  been 
administered  in  the  present  case  the  jurors  had 
been  daily  witnesses.  It  was,  however,  a  consola 
tion  to  think  that  not  one  of  those  sacred  guaran 
tees  had  been  violated  in  the  person  of  the  ac 
cused.  At  last  the  long  chapter  of  proof  was 
ended,  the  task  of  the  advocate  was  done,  and  it 
now  rested  with  the  jury  to  determine  the  issue 
between  public  justice  and  the  prisoner  at  the  bar. 
Before  proceeding  further  he  wished  to  notice  an 
incident  which  had  taken  place  pending  the  recent 

(497) 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   QUITE  A  U, 


argument.  The  prisoner  had  frequently  taken 
occasion  to  proclaim  that  public  opinion,  as  evinced 
by  the  press  and  correspondence,  was  in  his  favor. 
Those  declarations  could  not  have  been  prevented 
except  by  the  process  of  gagging  the  prisoner. 
Any  suggestion  that  the  jury  could  be  influenced 
by  such  lawless  clattering  of  the  prisoner  would 
have  seemed  to  him  absurd,  and  he  should  have 
felt  that  he  was  insulting  the  intelligence  of  the 
jury  if  he  had  warned  them  not  to  regard  it. 
Counsel  for  the  prosecution  had  felt  it  necessary, 
however,  in  the  final  argument  to  interpose  a  con 
tradiction  to  such  statements,  and  an  exception 
had  been  taken  on  the  part  of  the  accused  to  the 
form  in  which  that  effort  was  made.  For  the  sole 
purpose  of  purging  the  record  of  any  objection 
able  matter  he  should  simply  say  that  anything 
which  had  been  said  on  either  side  in  reference  to 
public  excitement  or  to  newspaper  opinion  was 
not  to  be  regarded  by  the  jury. 

The  indictment  charged  the  defendant  with  hav 
ing  murdered  James  A.  Garfield.  Murder  was 
committed  where  a  person  of  sound  memory  and 
discretion  unlawfully  killed  a  reasonable  being  in 
the  peace  of  the  United  States  with  malice  afore 
thought.  It  had  to  be  proved,  first,  that  the  death 
was  caused  by  the  act  of  the  accused,  and,  further, 
that  it  was  caused  with  malice  aforethought.  That 
did  not  mean,  however,  that  the  Government  had 
to  prove  any  ill-will  or  hatred  on  the  part  of  the 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


accused  toward  the  deceased.  Wherever  a  homi 
cide  was  shown  to  have  been  committed  without 
lawful  authority  and  with  deliberate  intent  it  was 
sufficiently  proved  to  have  been  done  with  malice 
aforethought,  and  malice  was  not  disproved  by 
showing  that  the  accused  had  no  personal  ill-will 
to  the  deceased,  and  that  he  killed  him  from  other 
motives  —  as,  for  instance,  robbery  or  through  mis 
taking  him  for  another,  or  (as  claimed  in  this  case) 
to  produce  a  public  benefit.  If  it  could  be  shown 
that  the  killing  occurred  in  the  heat  of  passion,  or 
under  provocation,  then  it  would  appear  that  there 
was  no  premeditated  attempt  and  therefore  no 
malice  aforethought,  and  that  would  reduce  the 
crime  to  manslaughter.  It  was  hardly  necessary, 
however,  to  say  that  there  was  nothing  of  that 
kind  in  the  present  case.  The  jury  would  have  to 
say  either  that  the  defendant  was  guilty  of  murder 
or  that  he  was  innocent. 

In  order  to  constitute  the  crime  of  murder  the 
assassin  must  have  a  reasonable  sane  mind  —  in 
technical  terms  he  must  be  "of  sound  mind,  mem 
ory  and  discretion."  An  irresponsibly  insane  man 
could  not  commit  murder.  In  the  first  place 
every  defendant  was  presumed  innocent  until  the 
accusation  against  him  was  established  by  proof. 
In  the  next  place,  notwithstanding  this  presump 
tion  of  innocence,  it  was  equally  true  that  a  de 
fendant  was  presumed  to  be  sane,  and  to  have 
been  so  at  the  time  the  crime  was  commited.  As 


500 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 


insanity  was  the  exception,  and  as  the  majority  of 
men  are  sane,  the  law  presumed  the  latter  condi 
tion  of  every  man  until  some  reason  was  shown  to 
believe  to  the  contrary.  The  burden  was,  there 
fore,  on  the  defendant,  who  set  up  insanity  as  an 
excuse  for  crime,  to  produce  proofs  in  the  first 
instance  to  show  that  that  presumption  was  mis 
taken,  so  far  as  it  related  to  the  prisoner. 

Crime,  therefore,  involved  three  elements — the 
killing,  malice,  and  a  responsible  mind  in  the  mur 
derer.  After  all  the  evidence  was  before  the  jury, 
if  the  jury  while  bearing  in  mind  both  those  pre 
sumptions — th^t  is,  that  the  defendent  is  innocent 
till  he  is  proved  guilty  and  that  he  is  sane  till  the 
contrary  appears — still  entertained  what  is  called  a 
reasonable  doubt  on  any  ground  or  as  to  any  of 
the  essential  elements  of  the  crime,  then  the  de 
fendant  was  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  that  doubt 
and  to  an  acquittal. 

It  was  important  to  explain  to  the  jury  what  is 
a  resonable  doubt.  As  to  the  questions  relating 
to  human  affairs,  a  knowledge  of  which  is  derived 
from  testimony,  it  was  impossible  to  have  the 
same  kind  of  certainty  that  is  created  by  scientific 
demonstration.  The  only  certainty  that  the  jury 
could  have  was  a  moral  certainty,  depending  on 
the  confidence  which  the  jury  had  in  the  integrity 
of  witnesses  and  in  their  capacity  and  opportunity 
to  know  the  truth.  If,  for  example,  facts  not  im 
probable  in  themselves  were  attested  by  numer- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


ous  witnesses,  credible  and  uncontradicted,  and 
who  had  every  opportunity  to  know  the  truth,  a 
resonable  or  moral  certainty  would  be  inspired 
by  that  testimony.  In  such  a  case  doubt  would 
be  unreasonable  or  imaginary  or  speculative.  It 
ought  not  to  be  a  doubt  as  to  whether  the  party 
might  not  be  innocent  in  the  face  of  strong 
proofs  of  his  guilt,  but  it  must  be  a  sincere  doubt 
whether  he  had  been  proved  guilty.  Even  where 
the  testimony  was  contradictory  and  where  so 
much  more  credit  should  be  given  to  one  side 
than  the  other,  the  same  result  might  be  pro 
duced.  On  the  other  hand  the  opposing  proofs 
might  be  so  balanced  that  the  jury  might  justly 
doubt  on  which  side,  under  all  the  circumstances, 
the  truth  lay,  and  in  such  case  the  accused  party 
was  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  the  doubt.  All  that 
a  jury  could  be  expected  to  do  was  to  be  reason 
ably  and  morally  certain  of  the  facts  which  they 
declared  to  be  their  verdict. 

With  reference  to  the  evidence  in  this  case, 
very  little  comment  was  required  by  the  Court, 
except  upon  one  question.  That  .the  defendant 
fired  at  and  shot  the  deceased  President  was 
abundantly  proved  ;  that  the  wound  was  fatal  had 
been  testified  to  by  the  surgeons,  who  were  com 
petent  to  speak,  and  they  were  uncontradicted  ; 
that  the  homicide  was  committed  with  malice  afore 
thought  —  if  the  defendant  was  capable  of  criminal 
intent  or  malice  —  could  hardly  be  gainsaid.  It 


502 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 


was  not  necessary  to  prove  that  any  special  or 
express  hatred  or  malice  was  entertained  by  the 
accused  toward  the  deceased.  It  was.  sufficient  to 
prove  that  the  act  was  done  by  deliberate  intent, 
as  distinct  from  an  act  done  under  a  sudden  im 
pulse,  in  the  heat  of  blood  and  without  previous 
malice.  Evidence  had  been  exhibited  to  the  jury 
tending  to  show  that  the  defendant  admitted  in 
his  own  hand-writing  that  he  had  conceived 
the  idea  of  "  removing  the  President/'  as  he  called 
it,  six  weeks  before  the  shooting;  that  he  had  de 
liberated  upon  it,  and  come  to  a  determination  to 
do  it,  and  that  about  two  weeks  before  he  accomp 
lished  it  he  stationed  himself  at  certain  points  to 
do  the  act,  but  for  some  reason  was  prevented. 
His  preparation  for  it  by  the  purchase  of  the  pistol 
had  been  shown.  All  these  facts  come  up  to  the 
full  measure  of  the  proof  required  to  establish 
what  the  law  denominated  malice  aforethought. 

The  jury  would  find  little  difficulty  in  reaching 
a  conclusion  as  to  all  the  elements  that  made  up 
the  crime  charged  in  the  indictment,  except,  it 
might  be,  as  to  the  one  of  sound  mind,  memory 
and  discretion,  but  that  was  only  a  technical  ex 
pression  for  a  responsible,  sane  man.  The  de 
fense  of  insanity  had  been  so  abused  as  to  be 
brought  into  great  discredit.  Nevertheless,  if  in 
sanity  were  established  to  a  degree  necessary,  it 
was  a  perfect  defense  for  an  indictment  for  mur 
der,  and  must  be  allowed  full  weight.  It  would 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


be  observed  that  in  this  case  there  was  no  trouble 
with  any  question  about  what  might  be  called  total 
insanity,  such  as  raving  mania,  or  absolute  imbe 
cility,  in  which  all  exercise  of  reason  is  wanting 
and  where  there  is  no  recognition  of  persons  or 
things  or  their  relations.  But  there  was  a  debat 
able  borderline  between  sanity  and  insanity;  and 
there  was  often  great  difficulty  in  determining  on 
which  side  of  the  line  a  party  was  to  be  put.  There 
were  cases  in  which  a  man's  mental  faculties  gen 
erally  seemed  to  be  in  full  vigor  but  where  on  one 
single  subject  he  seemed  to  be  deranged.  Those 
were  cases  which  for  want  of  a  better  term  were 
called  partial  insanity.  The  jury  would  bear  in 
mind  that  a  man  did  not  become  irresponsible  by 
the  mere  fact  of  his  being  partially  insane.  Such 
a  man  did  not  take  leave  of  his  passions  by  be- 
coming  insane.  He  might  retain  as  much  control 
over  them  as  in  health.  He  might  commit  of 
fences,  too,  with  which  his  infirmity  had  nothing 
to  do.  He  might  be  sane  as  to  the  crime  he  com 
mitted,  might  understand  its  nature,  and  might  be 
governed  by  the  same  motives  in  relation  to  it  as 
other  people,  while  on  other  subjects  having  no 
relations  whatever  to  the  crime  he  mi^ht  be  the 

o 

victim  of  delusion.  Whenever  this  partial  in 
sanity  was  relied  on  as  a  defense,  it  must  appear 
that  the  crime  charged  was  a  product  of  the  de 
lusion  or  other  morbid  condition  and  connected 
with  it  as  effect  with  cause,  and  that  it  was  not 


504  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

the  result  of  sane  reasoning  which  the  party  might 
be  capable  of,  notwithstanding  his  limited  and  cir 
cumscribed  disorder.  Assuming  that  that  infirmity 
of  mind  had  a  direct  influence  on  crime,  the  dif 
ficulty  was  to  fix  the  character  of  the  disorder 
which  fixed  responsibility  or  irresponsibility  in  law. 
It  would  be  well  to  say  a  word  to  the  jury  as  to 
the  kind  of  evidence  by  which  courts  and  juries 
were  guided  in  this  difficult  and  delicate  inquiry. 
That  subtle  essence  called  mind,  defied,  of  course, 
ocular  inspection.  It  could  only  be  known  by  its 
manifestations.  The  test  was  as  to  whether  the 
conduct  of  the  man  and  his  thoughts  and  emotions 
conformed  with  those  of  persons  of  sound  mind, 
or  whether  they  contrasted  harshly  with  it.  By 
that  a  judgment  was  formed  as  to  a  man's  sound 
ness  of  mind.  And  for  that  reason  evidence  was 
admissible  to  show  conduct  and  language  that 
would  indicate  some  morbid  condition  of  the  intel 
lectual  powers.  Everything  relating  to  his  mental 
and  physical  history  was  therefore  relevant,  be 
cause  any  conclusion  on  the  subject  must  often 
rest  on  a  large  number  of  facts,  and  letters  spon 
taneously  written  afforded  one  of  the  best  indi 
cations  of  mental  condition.  Evidence  of  insanity 
in  the  parents  was  always  pertinent,  but  juries 
were  never  allowed  to  infer  insanity  in  the  accused 
from  the  mere  fact  of  its  existence  in  the  ancestors. 
When,  however,  there  was  evidence  tending  to 
show  insane  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  accused 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


evidence  of  insanity  in  the  ancestors  was  admis 
sible  as  corroborative  of  the  others.  Therefore 
it  was  that,  in  this  case,  the  defense  had  been 
allowed  to  introduce  evidence  covering  the  whole 
life  of  the  accused,  and  reaching  also  his  family 
antecedents.  The  true  test  of  criminal  respon 
sibility,  where  the  defense  of  insanity  was  inter 
posed,  was  whether  the  accused  had  sufficient 
use  of  his  reason  to  understand  the  nature  of  the 
act  with  which  he  was  charged,  and  to  understand 

o         » 

that  it  was  wrong"  for  him  to  commit  it. 

o 

As  the  law  assumed  every  one  at  the  outset  to 
be  sane  and  responsible,  the  question  was,  what 
was  there  in  this  case  to  show  the  contrary  as  to 
this  defendant  ?  Perhaps  the  easiest  way  for  the 
jury  to  examine  into  the  subject  was  first  to  satisfy 
themselves  about  the  condition  of  the  prisoner's 
mind  for  a  reasonable  period  of  time  before  any 
conception  of  the  assassination  had  entered  it, 
and  also  at  the  present  time,  and  then  consider 
what  evidence  exists  as  to  a  different  condition  of 
mind  at  the  time  of  the  commission  of  the  act.  He 
should  not  spend  any  time  on  the  first  question. 
It  was  enough  to  say  that,  on  the  one  side,  this 
evidence  was  supposed  to  show  a  chronic  con 
dition  of  insanity  before  the  crime,  and,  on  the 
other  side,  to  show  an  exceptionally  quick  intelli 
gence  and  decided  powers  of  discrimination.  The 
jury  would  have  to  draw  its  own  conclusions. 

Was  the  prisoner's  ordinary,  permanent,  chronic 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GU2TEAU, 


condition  of  mind  such  that  he  was  unable  to  un 
derstand  the  nature  of  his  actions,  and  to  distin 
guish  between  right  and  wrong  in  his  conduct? 
Was  he  subject  all  the  time  to  insane  delusions 
which  destroyed  his  power  so  to  distinguish,  and 
did  those  continue  down  to  and  embrace  the  act 
for  which  he  is  on  trial  ?  If  so,  he  was  simply  an 
irresponsible  lunatic. 

On  the  other  hand,  had  he  the  ordinary  intelli 
gence  of  sane  people,  so  that  he  could  distinguish 
between  right  and  wrong  as  to  his  actions  ?  The 
jury  must  consider  these  questions.  If  the  jury 
were  satisfied  that  his  ordinary  and  chronic  con 
dition  was  that  of  sanity  —  at  least  so  far  that  he 
knew  the  character  of  his  own  actions  and  how 
far  they  were  right  or  wrong,  and  that  he  was  not 
under  any  permanent  insane  delusion  which  des 
troyed  his  power  of  discriminating  between  right 
and  wrong  —  then  the  remaining  inquiry  was 
whether  there  was  any  special  insanity  connected 
with  this  crime.  The  reliance  of  the  defense  was 
the  existence  of  an  insane  delusion  in  the  pris 
oner's  mind  which  so  perverted  his  reason  as  to 
incapacitate  him  from  perceiving  the  difference 
between  right  and  wrong  as  to  this  particular 
act. 

The  subject  of  insane  delusions  played  an  im 
portant  part  in  this  case  and  demanded  careful 
consideration.  The  subject  was  treated,  to  a  lim 
ited  extent,  in  judicial  decisions;  but  more  was 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


learned  about  it  from  works  of  medical  jurispru 
dence  and  from  expert  testimony.  Sane  people 
were  sometimes  said  to  have  delusions,  proceeding 
from  temporary  disorders  and  from  mistakes  in 
the  senses.  Sometimes  they  speculated  on  mat 
ters  beyond  the  scope  of  human  knowledge,  but 
delusions  in  sane  people  were  always  susceptible 
of  being  corrected  and  removed  by  evidence  and 
argument.  On  the  contrary,  insane  delusions, 
according  to  all  testimony,  were  unreasoning  and 
incorrigible.  Those  who  had  them  believed  in  the 
existence  of  facts  which  were  either  impossible 
absolutely  or  impossible  at  least  under  the  circum 
stances  of  the  individual.  A  man  might,  with  no 
reason  for  it,  believe  that  another  was  plotting 
against  his  life,  or  that  he  himself  was  the  owner 
of  untold  wealth,  or  that  he  had  invented  some 
thing  which  would  revolutionize  the  world,  or  that 
he  was-  the  President  of  the  United  States,  or 
Christ,  or  God,  or  that  he  was  inspired  by  God  to 
do  a  certain  act,  or  that  he  had  a  glass  limb  —  and 
those  were  cases  of  insane  delusions.  Generally 
the  delusion  centered  around  the  patient  himself, 
his  rights  or  his  wrongs.  It  came  and  went  inde- 

o  o 

pendently  of  the  exercise  of  will  and  reason,  like 
the  phantasm  of  a  dream.  It  was  in  fact  the  wak 
ing  dream  of  the  insane  in  which  ideas  presented 
themselves  to  the  mind  as  real  facts.  The  most 
certain  thing  was  that  an  insane  delusion  was 
never  the  result  of  reasoning  and  reflection.  An 

o 
42* 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 


insane  delusion  was  the  coinage  of  a  .  diseased 
brain  which  defies  reason  and  ridicule  and  throws 
into  disorder  all  the  springs  of  human  action. 

Before  asking  the  jury  to  apply  these  considera 
tions  to  the  facts  in  this  case  he  wished  to  premise 
one  or  two  things.  The  question  for  the  jury  to 
determine  was,  what  was  the  condition  of  the  pris 
oner's  mind  at  the  time  when  this  project  was 
executed.  If  he  were  sufficiently  sane  then  to  be 
responsible,  it  mattered  not  what  might  have  been 
his  condition  before  or  after.  Still  evidence  had 
been  properly  admitted  as  to  his  previous  and 
subsequent  condition,  because  it  threw  light  pros- 
pectively  and  retrospectively  on  his  condition  at 
the  time.  Inasmuch  as  these  disorders  were  of 
gradual  growth  and  of  indefinite  continuance,  if 
he  were  insane  shortly  before  or  shortly  after  the 
commission  of  the  crime,  it  was  natural  to  infer 
that  he  was  so  at  the  time.  But  still  all  the  evi 
dence  must  centre  around  the  time  when  the  deed 
was  done. 

Naturally  the  jury  would  look  first  to  any  ex 
planation  of  the  act  that  might  have  been  made 
by  the  defendant  himself  at  the  time,  or  immedi 
ately  before  or  after.  Several  papers  had  been 
laid  before  them  that  had  been  in  the  prisoner's 
possession  and  that  purported  to  assign  the  mo 
tive  for  the  deed.  From  these  papers  the  Judge 
quoted  the  familiar  claim  that  there  was  a  political 
necessity  that  Garfield  should  die.  His  verbal 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


disclosures  to  Brooks,  Reynolds  and  others,  were 
to  the  same  effect. 

Judge  Cox  proceeded  to  quote  from  the  address 
to  the  American  people,  which  was  written  and 
given  to  Mr.  Reynolds,  "I  now  wish  to  state  dis 
tinctly  why  I  attempted  to  remove  the  President. 
I  had  read  the  papers  for  and  against  the  adminis 
tration  very  carefully  for  two  months  before  I  con 
ceived  the  idea  of  removing  him.  Gradually,  as 
the  result  of  reading  the  newspapers,  the  idea 
settled  on  me  that  if  the  President  were  removed 
it  would  unite  the  two  factions  of  the  Republican 
party  and  thereby  save  the  Government  from 
going  into  the  hands  of  ex-rebels  3nd  their 
Northern  allies.  It  was  my  own  conception,  and, 
whether  right  or  wrong,  I  take  the  entire  respon 
sibility." 

The  jury  had  now,  His  Honor  said,  before  it 
everything  emanating  from  the  prisoner  about  the 
time  of  the  shooting.  And  now  he  would  pass  to 
consider  the  import  of  all  this.  The  jury  would 
consider,  first,  whether  this  evidence  fairly  repre 
sented  the  feelings  and  ideas  that  governed  the 
prisoner  at  the  time  of  the  shooting.  If  it  did,  it 
represented  a  thing  which  he  (Judge  Cox)  had 
not  seen  characterized  in  any  judicial  utterance  as 
an  insane  delusion.  They  would  consider  whether 
it  was  evidence  of  insanity,  or  whether,  on  the  con 
trary,  it  showed  an  ample  power  of  reasoning  and 
reflection  on  the  arguments  and  evidence  for  and 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


against,  resulting  in  the  opinion  that  the  President 
had  betrayed  his  party,  and  that,  if  he  were  out  of 
the  way,  it  would  be  a  benefit  to  his  party,  and 
would  save  the  country  from  the  predominance  of 
their  political  opponents. 

When  men  reasoned  the  law  required  them  to 
reason  correctly,  so  far  as  their  practical  duties 
were  concerned.  When  they  had  the  capacity  to 
distinguish  between  right  and  wrong  they  were 
bound  to  do  so.  Opinions,  properly  so-called, 
that  is,  beliefs  resulting  from  reasoning,  reflection 
and  the  examination  of  evidence,  afforded  no  pro 
tection  against  the  penal  consequences  of  crime. 
A  man  mio-ht  believe  a  course  of  action  to  be 

o 

right,  and  the  law  might  forbid  it  as  wrong. 
Nevertheless  he  must  obey  the  law,  and  nothing 
could  save  him  from  the  consequences  of  the  vio 
lation  of  the  law  except  the  fact  that  he  was  so 
crazed  by  disease  as  to  be  unable  to  comprehend 
the  necessity  of  obedience.  The  prisoner  seemed 
to  have  gotten  the  idea  that,  in  order  to  unite  the 

o 

Republican  party  and  to  save  the  Republic,  what 
ever  means  were  necessary  would  be  justifiable  ; 
that  the  death  of  the  President  by  violence  was 
only  a  proper  and  necessary  means  of  accomplish 
ing  it,  and  was  therefore  justifiable ;  and  that, 
being  justifiable  as  a  political  necessity,  it  was  not 
murder. 

There  was  undoubtedly  a  form  of  insane  delu 
sion,  consisting  of  a  belief  by  a  person  that  he 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  c  i  j 

was  inspired  by  the  Almighty  to  do  something — 
to  kill  another,  for  example — and  this  delusion 
might  be  so  strong  as  to  impel  him  to  the  com 
mission  of  crime.  The  defendant  in  this  case 
claimed  that  he  labored  under  such  a  delusion  at 
the  time  of  the  assassination.  The  law  allowed  a 
prisoner  to  testify  in  his  own  behalf,  and  therefore 
made  his  sworn  testimony  on  the  witness-stand 
legal  evidence,  to  be  received  and  considered  and 
given  such  weight  as  it  deserved.  No  verdict, 
however,  could  be  safely  rendered  on  the  sole 
evidence  of  an  accused  party  under  such  circum 
stances.  Otherwise,  a  man  on  trial  for  his  life 
could  secure  his  acquittal  by  simply  testifying  that 
he  had  committed  the  crime  under  a  delusion  or 
inspiration  or  irresistible  impulse. 

He  would  say  a  word  about  the  characteristics 
of  that  form  of  delusion.  The  idea  of  being 
inspired  to  do  an  act  might  be  either  a  sane  belief 
or  an  insane  delusion.  A  great  many  Christian 
people  believed  not  only  that  events  were  provi 
dentially  ordered,  but  that  they  themselves  re 
ceived  special  providential  guidance  and  illumi 
nation  in  respect  both  to  their  inward  thoughts 
and  their  outward  actions.  But  this  was  a  mere 
sane  belief.  On  the  other  hand,  if  a  man  sincerely, 
though  insanely,  believed  that,  like  St.  Paul,  on  his 
way  to  Damascus,  he  had  been  smitten  to  the 
earth  and  had  seen  a  great  light  and  had  heard  a 
voice  from  heaven  warning  and  commanding  him 

43 


rI2  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

to  do  a  certain  act,  that  would  be  a  case  of  imagi 
nary  inspiration  amounting  to  an  insane  delusion. 
The  question  was  whether  the  case  of  this  defend 
ant  presented  anything  analogous  to  that. 

The  theory  of  the  government  was  that  the  de 
fendant  committed  this  homicide  in  full  possession 
of  his  faculties  and  from  perfectly  sane  motives ; 
that  he  did  the  act  from  revenge,  or  perhaps  from 
a  morbid  desire  for  notoriety ;  that  he  calculated 
deliberately  on  being  protected  by  those  who 
were  to  be  benefitted  politically  by  the  death  of 
the  President ;  that  he  made  no  pretense  of  inspi 
ration  at  the  time  of  the  assassination,  nor  until  he 
had  discovered  that  his  expectations  from  the  so- 
called  stalwart  wing  of  the  Republican  party  were 
delusive,  and  that  then,  for  the  first  time,  he 
broached  this  theory  of  inspiration  and  irresistible 
pressure  to  the  commission  of  the  act.  Whether 
this  was  true  or  not  the  jury  must  determine  from 
the  evidence. 

Judge  Cox  went  on  to  say  that  the  question  for 
the  jury  was,  whether,  on  the  one  hand,  the  idea 
of  killing  the  President  first  presented  itself  to 
the  defendant  in  the  shape  of  a  command  or  in 
spiration  of  the  Deity,  in  the  manner  in  which  in 
sane  delusions  of  that  sort  arose  ;  or  whether,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  was  a  conception  of  his  own, 
and  whether  the  thought  of  inspiration  was  not 
simply  a  speculation,  a  theory,  or  theoretical  con 
clusion,  of  his  own  mind.  If  it  were  the  latter,  it 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  r  l  „ 

was  nothing  more  than  one  of  the  vagaries  of 
reasoning,  which  he  had  already  characterized  as 
furnishing  no  excuse  for  crime.  He  had  dwelt 
upon  the  question  of  insane  delusion  simply  be 
cause  the  evidence  relating  to  that  was  evidence 

o 

touching  the  defendant's  power  or  want  of  power 
(from  mental  disease),  to  distinguish  between 
right  and  wrong  as  to  the  act  done  by  him. 

There  were  a  great  many  things  in  the  defend 
ant's  conduct  which  could  not  be  expected  of  a 
sane  man,  and  which  were  only  explainable  on  the 
theory  of  insanity.  Whether  they  were  really  in 
dications  of  insanity  or  could  be  accounted  for  by 
his  ignorance  of  men,  by  his  exaggerated  egotism 
or  by  his  bluntness  of  moral  sense,  it  might  be 
difficult  to  determine.  The  only  safe  rule,  how 
ever,  was  for  the  jury  to  direct  its  attention  to  the 
one  test  of  criminal  responsibility,  namely — 
whether  the  prisoner  possessed  the  mental  ca 
pacity,  at  the  time  the  act  was  committed,  to  know 
that  it  was  wrong ;  or  whether  he  was  deprived  of 
that  capacity  by  mental  disease.  There  was  one 
important  distinction  which  the  jury  must  not  lose 
sight  of,  and  they  must  decide  how  far  it  was  ap 
plicable  to  this  case.  That  was  the  distinction  be 
tween  mental  and  moral  obliquity,  between  the 
mental  incapacity  to  distinguish  between  right  and 
wrong,  and  the  moral  insensibility  to  that  distinc 
tion. 

In  conclusion  he  said :  From  the  materials  pre- 


^4  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 

sented  to  you,  two  pictures  have  been  drawn  to 
you  by  counsel.  The  one  represents  a  youth  of 
more  than  average  mental  endowments,  sur 
rounded  by  certain  immoral  influences  at  the  time 
his  character  was  being  developed,  commencing 
life  without  resources,  but  developing  a  vicious 
sharpness  and  cunning,  conceiving  "enterprises  of 
great  pith  and  moment"  that  indicated  unusual 
forecast,  although  beyond  his  resources,  consumed 
all  the  time  by  insatiate  egotism  and  a  craving  for 
notoriety ;  violent  in  temper,  selfish,  immoral  and 
dishonest;  leading  a  life  of  hypocrisy,  swindling 
and  fraud,  and  finally,  as  a  culmination  of  his  de 
praved  career,  working  himself  into  the  resolution 
of  startling  •  the  world  with  a  crime  which  would 
secure  him  a  bad  eminence. 

The  other  represented  a  youth,  born,  as  it  were, 
under  malign  influences — the  child  of  a  diseased 

o 

mother  and  of  a  father  subject  to  insane  delusions, 
reared  in  retirement  and  imbued  with  fanatical 
religious  views;  subsequently  his  mind  filled  with 
fanatical  theories,  launched  on  the  world  with  no 
guidance  save  his  own  impulses,  evincing  an  inca 
pacity  for  any  continuous  employment,  changing 
from  one  pursuit  to  another — now  a  lawyer,  now 
a  religionist,  and  now  a  politician,  unsuccessful  in 
all,  full  of  wild,  impracticable  schemes  for  which 
he  had  neither  resources  nor  ability,  subject  to 
delusions,  his  mind  incoherent  and  incompetent 
of  reasoning  coherently  on  any  subject,  with  a 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  r  l  j 

mind  so  weak  and  a  temper  so  impressionable 
that  he  became  deranged,  and  was  therefore  im 
pelled  to  the  commission  of  a  crime  the  seriousness 
of  which  he  could  not  understand. 

It  is  for  you,  gentlemen,  to  determine  which  of 
the  portraits  is  the  true  one.  And  now,  gentle 
men,  to  sum  up  all  I  have  said  to  you,  if  you  find 
from  the  whole  evidence  that,  at  the  time  of  the 
commission  of  the  homicide,  the  prisoner  was 
laboring  under  such  a  defect  of  his  reason  that  he 
was^incapable  of  understanding  what  he  was  doing, 
or  of  seeing  that  it  was  a  wrong  thing  to  do — as, 
for  example,  if  he  were  under  the  insane  delusion 
that  the  Almighty  had  commanded  him  to  do  the 
act — then  he  was  not  in  a  responsible  condition 
of  mind,  but  was  an  object  of  compassion  and 
should  be  now  acquitted.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
you  find  that  he  was  under  no  insane  delusion,  but 
had  the  possession  of  his  faculties  and  had  power 
to  know  that  his  act  was  wrong,  and  if  of  his  own 
free  will  he  deliberately  conceived  the  idea  and 
executed  the  homicide,  then  whether  his  motives 
were  personal  vindictiveness,  political  animosity,  a 
desire  to  avenge  supposed  political  wrongs  or  a 
morbid  desire  for  notoriety;  or  if  you  are  unable 
to  discover  any  motive  at  all  the  act  is  simply 
murder  and  it  is  your  duty  to  find  a  verdict  of 
guilty  as  indicted.  Or  (after  a  suggestion  from 
Mr.  Scoville  to  that  effect)  if  you  find  that  the 
prisoner  is  not  guilty  by  reason  of  insanity,  it  is 


^6  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU. 

your  duty  to  say  so.     You  will  now  retire  to  your 
room  and  consider  your  verdict. 

The  delivery  of  the  Judge's  charge  was  com 
pleted  at  twenty  minutes  to  5  p.  m.  The  jury 
immediately  retired  and  many  of  the  spectators 
left  the  room. 


LEAVING   THE   COIJRT-HOUSE   AFTER   THE  VERDICT. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   FINDING   OF   THE   JURY. 

AFTER  the  jury  had  been  out  about  twenty 
minutes  a  recess  was  taken  until  half-past 
five  o'clock.  The  prisoner,  at  his  request, 
had  been  allowed  to  retire  to  the  little  room  he 
has  occupied  since  the  trial  began  as  a  waiting- 
room. 

Within  ten  minutes  after  the  recess  had  been 
taken  the  jury  called  to  the  bailiff  in  waiting  that 
they  were  ready  with  their  verdict.  They  were 
informed  that  a  recess  had  been  taken  and  that 
Judge  Cox  had  left  the  court-room,  so  they  re 
mained  in  their  room  until  the  court  re-assembled. 

The  musty,  antique  court-room  is  devoid  of 
gas,  and  the  score  or  more  of  candles  which  had 
been  placed  upon  the  desks  of  the  Judge,  counsel 
and  reporters,  imparted  a  weird  and  fancifully  un 
natural  aspect  to  the  grim,  old  place.  The  shadows 
thrown  upon  the  dark  background  of  the  walls 
seemed  like  flitting  spectres  to  usher  in  the  sombre 
procession  of  those  who  held  in  their  hands  the 
destiny  of  a  human  life. 

First  came  the  prisoner  with  quick,  nervous 
steps,  and  as  he  seated  himself  in  the  dock  the 

(517) 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.    GVI7EAU, 


light  of  a  solitary  candle  fell  full  upon  his  face  and 
disclosed  its  more  than  usual  pallor.  Not  a  tremor 
of  the  limbs  or  a  movement  of  the  muscles  of  the 
face  was  observable  as  he  threw  back  his  head  and 
fixed  his  gaze  upon  the  door  through  which  the 
jury  were  to  enter. 

Judge  Cox  soon  afterward  took  his  seat.  The 
crier  called  "Order!"  and  the  jury  at  twenty-five 
minutes  to  six  filed  slowly  into  their  seats. 

Every  sound  was  hushed  save  the  voice  of  the 
clerk  as  he  propounded  to  the  foreman  the  usual 
inquiry  as  to  whether  the  jury  had  agreed  upon  a 
verdict. 

Clear  and  distinct  came  the  reply,  "  We  have." 

"What  is  your  verdict,  guilty  or  not  guilty?" 

With  equal  distinctness  came  the  reply,  "  Guilty 
as  indicted." 

Then  the  pent-up  feelings  of  the  crowd  found 
expression  in  uproarious  demonstrations  of  ap 
plause  and  approval. 

"  Order,"  "  Order,"  shouted  the  bailiffs. 

Mr.  Scoville  and  counsel  for  the  prosecution 
were  simultaneously  upon  their  feet.  Mr.  Sco 
ville  attempted  to  address  the  Court,  but  the  Dis 
trict-Attorney  shouted,  "Wait  till  we  have  the 
verdict  complete  and  in  due  form  of  law." 

Order  was  at  length  restored,  and  the  clerk 
again  addressing  the  jury  said  :  "  Your  foreman 
says  '  Guilty  as  indicted.'  '  So  say  you,  all  of 
you?" 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


519 


"  We  do,"  they  all  responded. 

Another  demonstration  of  approval  followed  this 


GUITEAU   IN   THE  CORRIDOR  OF  THE  JAIL. 

announcement,  but  not  so  prolonged  as  the  first. 

Mr.  Scoville,  still  upon   his   feet,  demanded  a 

poll   of  the  jury,   which  was  granted,  and   each 

43* 


£-2O  TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GU1TEAU, 

juror  was  called  by  name,  and  each  in  a  firm  voice 
promptly  responded  "  Guilty." 

As  the  last  name  was  called  the  prisoner 
shrieked : — "  My  blood  will  be  upon  the  heads  of 
that  jury ;  don't  you  forget  it." 

After  some  words  of  inquiry  from  Mr.  Scoville 
and  reply  from  Judge  Cox,  Guiteau  called  out  in 
desperation,  "  God  will  avenge  this  outrage." 

Judge  Cox  then  turned  to  the  jury  and  said: 
Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  I  cannot  express  too  many 
thanks  for  the  manner  in  which  you  have  dis 
charged  your  duty.  You  have  richly  merited  the 
thanks  of  your  countrymen,  and  I  feel  assured 
you  will  take  with  you  to  your  homes  the  approval 
of  your  consciences.  With  thanks,  gentlemen  of 
the  jury,  I  dismiss  you. 

With  this  announcement  the  Court  was  de 
clared  adjourned,  and  the  trial  which  has  absorbed 
the  public  interest  and  attention  for  more  than  ten 
weeks  was  ended. 

The  crowd  quickly  left  the  court- room,  and  the 
prisoner  gesticulating  with  his  manacled  hands 
was  led  out.  As  he  passed  the  reporters'  table 
he  leaned  over  and  called  out  to  an  acquaintance, 
"  The  court  in  bane  will  reverse  this  business." 

As  the  prisoner  was  conducted  to  the  van,  an 
immense  crowd  of  men  and  boys  shouted  them 
selves  hoarse  crying  after  him,  "All  America  is 
with  you,"  and  other  jeering  expressions. 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  r  2 1 

NEW   TRIAL   ASKED. 

As  was  expected,  counsel  for  the  defense  were 
prompt  in  filing  a  bill  of  exceptions,  and  asking 
a  new  trial.  This  appeal  wa's  argued  on  Friday, 
February  3d,  and  the  next  day  was  fixed  for  the 
decision  and  sentence. 

At  a  few  moments  past  10  o'clock  on  Saturday 
morning,  February  4th,  the  prisoner  was  brought 
in  and  took  his  seat  at  the  counsel  table  and  the 
Court  was  formally  opened. 

Judge  Cox  then  proceeded  to  render  his  de 
cision  upon  the  appeal  made  for  a  new  trial.  He 
said  that  the  motion  to  set  aside  the  verdict  and 
grant  a  new  trial  had  been  based  on  various 
grounds,  only  two  of  which  were  made  the  sub 
jects  of  discussion  and  needed  to  be  considered  by 
the  Court.  The  first  ground  in  substance  was 
that  certain  newspaper  matter  calculated  to  preju 
dice  the  minds  of  the  jury  against  the  prisoner  was 
found  in  one  of  the  rooms  assigned  to  the  jury 
and  passed  under  their  examination  and  inspec 
tion.  The  first  testimony  relied  upon  in  support 
of  this  alleged  ground  was  the  affidavit  of  Snyder 
to  the  effect  that  a  certain  paper  was  found  by  him 
in  one  of  the  rooms  occupied  by  the  jury.  To 
the  mere  fact  that  in  the  absence  of  the  jury  a 
paper,  of  whatever  character,  was  found  in  the 
vacant  room,  the  Court  could  attach  no  signifi 
cance  or  weight,  for  the  reason  that  it  was  within 

o       ' 

the  power  of  anybody  to  place  the  paper  there. 


r22  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

It  was  in  the  power  of  any  friend  of  the  prisoner 
to  do  so.  It  was  in  the  power  of  the  affiant  him 
self  to  do  so.  He  might  have  placed  it  there  and 
afterward  found  it,  and  that  fact  would  not  be  in 
consistent  with  the  truth  of  the  affidavit.  As  for 
the  handwriting  there  were  circumstances  that 
made  it  improbable  that  the  jurors  wrote  their 
names  on  the  paper.  The  jurors  swore  that  they 
did  not  do  so,  and  that  no  such  paper  was  in  the 
room  at  all.  They  swore  that  they  had  not  read 
any  paper.  He  had  not  the  slightest  ground  for 
suspecting  the  integrity  or  veracity  of  these  gen 
tlemen,  who  made  the  statement. 

So  far  as  the  discovery  of  new  evidence  is  con 
cerned,  the  evidence  to  be  introduced  is  as  to  the 
prisoner's  manner  and  appearance  prior  to  the 
assassination.  If  there  had  been  no  evidence  in 
troduced  upon  this  subject,  there  might  be  some 
force  in  the  request,  but  a  dozen  or  more  wit 
nesses  testified  on  the  trial  as  to  his  manner  and 
appearance  covering  the  period  of  time  from 
March  until  the  commission  of  the  act.  The  evi 
dence  now  sought  to  be  introduced  would  be 
merely  cumulative  and  would  not  affect  the  verdict. 

It  was  further  alleged  that  the  defense  might  be 
able  to  prove  that  one  of  the  expert  witnesses 
had  admitted  since  the  trial  that  his  opinion  was 
different  from  that  which  he  had  given  at  the  trial. 
It  was  a  general  rule  that  newly-discovered  evi 
dence  going  to  impeach  a  witness  was  not  a 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD.  523 

ground  for  a  new  trial  under  any  circumstances, 
but  least  of  all  when  it  went  to  admissions  of  a 
witness  after  the  conclusion  of  the  trial.  That 
would  place  it  in  the  power  of  any  witness  to  set 
aside  a  verdict  founded  upon  his  own  testimony 
after  the  trial  was  over.  No  evidence  of  that 
kind  could  be  considered  by  the  Court  in  regard 
to  a  new  trial.  He  had  considered  all  the  matters 
which  had  been  presented  and  was  compelled  to 
overrule  the  motion  for  a  new  trial. 

Prisoner :  I  don't  desire  any  advantage  shall  be 
taken  of  me.  I  expect  to  have  my  lawyers  pro 
cured  in  ten  days,  and  they  will  come  and  take 
hold  and  pull  me  through  in  the  court  in  bane. 

Mr.  Scoville :  I  have  till  the  first  of  March  to 
file  my  bill  of  exceptions  ? 

Court:  Yes. 

Mr.  Scoville :  If  I  can  do  it  in  a  week  I  will. 
(To  the  prisoner).  Keep  quiet. 

Prisoner,  violently :  I  am  going  to  talk,  too,  and 
I  don't  propose  to  leave  this  matter  to  you.  I 
have  my  opinion  of  you  as  a  lawyer.  You  have 
been  doing  well,  but  your  theory  is  wrong.  Your 
theory  is  too  small.  You  convicted  me  with  your 
jackass  theories  and  consummate  nonsense.  I 
don't  propose  to  have  your  theory  prevail.  (To  the 
bailiffs,  who  were  endeavoring  to  suppress  him), 
I  will  not  be  still  for  you  nor  for  anybody  else. 

Mr.  Scoville,  angrily :  Keep  quiet. 

Prisoner,  wildly :  You  keep  your  mouth  still.    I 


c-24  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GUITEAU, 

am  doing  this  matter  myself.  You  convicted  me 
by  your  wild  theory  and  consummate  asinine 
character  all  through.  If  the  case  had  been  kept 
entirely  away  from  you  I  would  have  had  two  of 
the  best  lawyers  in  America,  and  there  would 
have  been  no  conviction.  I  had  letters  from  them 
and  could  have  had  them  last  October.  I  care 
nothing  about  your  intentions,  I  want  brains  and 
experience.  ITour  intentions  were  good,  but  you 
are  deficient  in  brains  and  theory.  Let  me  alone 
and  I  will  pull  out  of  this.  You  got  me  into  this 
trouble. 

District-Attorney:  The  duty  is  now  imposed 
upon  me  to  ask  the  Court  to  pass  sentence  in 
accordance  with  the  verdict. 

Prisoner :  I  ask  your  Honor  to  defer  that  as 
long  as  you  can. 

Court,  to  the  prisoner:  Stand  up.  (The  pris 
oner  rose.)  Have  you  anything  to  say  why  sen 
tence  should  not  be  pronounced  ? 

Prisoner:  I  am  not  guilty  of  the  charge  set 
forth  in  the  indictment.  It  was  God's  act,  not 
mine,  and  God  will  take  care  of  it,  and  don't  let 
the  American  people  forget  it.  He  will  take  care 
of  it  and  every  officer  of  the  Government,  from 
the  Executive  down  to  that  Marshal,  taking  in 
every  man  on  that  jury  and  every  member  of  this 
bench,  will  pay  for  it,  and  the  American  nation 
will  roll  in  blood  if  my  body  goes  into  the  ground 
and  I  am  hung.  The  Jews  put  the  despised  Gali- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


lean  into  the  grave.  For  the  time  they  triumphed  ; 
but  at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  forty  years 
afterwards,  the  Almighty  got  even  with  them.  I 
am  not  afraid  of  death.  I  am  here  as  God's  man. 
Kill  me  to-morrow  if  you  want  ;  I  am  God's  man, 
and  I  have  been  from  the  start. 

SENTENCED  TO  DEATH. 

Judge  Cox  then  proceeded  to  pass  sentence, 
addressing  the  prisoner  as  follows: 

You  have  been  convicted  of  a  crime  so  terrible 
in  its  circumstances  and  so  far-reaching  in  its 
results  that  it  has  drawn  upon  you  the  horror  of 
the  whole  civilized  world  and  the  execrations  of 
your  countrymen.  The  excitement  produced  by 
such  an  offense  made  it  no  easy  task  to  secure  for 
you  a  fair  and  impartial  trial,  but  you  had  the 
power  of  the  United  States  Treasury  and  of  the 
government  in  your  service  to  protect  your  per 
son  from  violence  and  to  procure  evidence  from 
all  parts  of  the  country.  You  have  had  as  fair 
and  impartial  a  jury  as  ever  assembled  in  a  court 
of  justice.  You  have  been  defended  by  counsel 
with  a  zeal  and  devotion  that  merit  the  highest 
encomium,  and  I  certainly  have  done  my  be-st  to 
secure  a  fair  presentation  of  the  defense.  Not 
withstanding  all  this  you  have  been  found  guilty. 
It  would  have  been  a  comfort  to  many  people  if 
the  verdict  of  the  jury  had  established  the  fact  that 
your  act  was  that  of  an  irresponsible  man.  It 
would  have  left  the  people  the  satisfying  belief 


TRIAL   OF  CHARLES  J.   GUITEAU, 


that  the  crime  of  political  assassination  was  some-' 
thing  entirely  foreign  to  the  institutions  and  civili 
zations  of  our  country;  but  the  result  has  denied 
them  that  comfort.  The  country  will  accept  it  as 
a  fact  that  that  crime  can  be  committed,  and  the 
Court  will  have  to  deal  with  it  with  the  highest 
penalty  known  to  the  criminal  code  to  serve  as  an 
example  to  others.  Your  career  has  been  so  ex 
traordinary  that  people  might  well  at  times  have 
doubted  your  sanity.  But  one  cannot  but  believe 
that  when  the  crime  was  committed  you  thoroughly 
understood  the  nature  of  the  crime  and  its  conse 
quences  —  [Guiteau:  I  was  acting  as  God's  man] 
—  and  that  you  had  moral  sense  and  conscience 
enough  to  recognize  the  moral  iniquity  of  such  an 
act. 

Prisoner:  That's  a  matter  of  opinion. 

Your  own  testimony  shows  that  you  recoiled 
with  horror  from  the  idea.  You  say  that  you 
prayed  against  it.  You  say  that  you  thought  it 
might  be  prevented.  This  shows  that  your  con 
science  warned  you  against  it,  but  by  the  wretched 
sophistry  of  your  own  mind  you  worked  yourself 
up  against  the  protest  of  your  own  conscience. 
What  motive  could  have  induced  you  to  this  act 
must  be  a  matter  of  conjecture.  Probably  men 
will  think  that  some  fanaticism  or  a  morbid  desire 
for  self-exaltation  was  the  real  inspiration  for  the 
act.  Your  own  testimony  seems  to  controvert 
the  theories  of  your  counsel.  They  have  main- 


ASSASSIN  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD. 


tained,  and  thought  honestly,  I  believe,  that  you 
were  driven  against  your  will  by  an  insane  impulse 
to  commit  the  act,  but  your  testimony  showed  that 
you  deliberately  resolved  to  do  it,  and  that  a  de 
liberate  and  misguided  will  was  the  sole  impulse. 
This  may  seem  insanity  to  some  persons,  but  the 
law  looks  upon  it  as  a  wilful  crime*  You  will 
have  due  opportunity  of  having  any  error  I  may 
have  committed  during  the  course  of  the  trial 
passed  upon  by  the  Court  in  bane,  but  meanwhile 
it  is  necessary  for  me  to  pronounce  the  sentence 
of  the  law  that  you  be  taken  to  the  common  jail 
of  the  District,  from  whence  you  came,  and  there 
be  kept  in  confinement,  and  on  Friday,  the  3oth 
of  June,  1882,  you  be  taken  to  the  place  prepared 
for  the  execution,  within  the  walls  of  said  jail,  and 
there,  between  the  hours  of  1  2  M.  and  2  p.  M.,  you 
be  hanged  by  the  neck  until  you  are  dead.  And 
may  the  Lord  have  mercy  on  your  soul. 

As  the  last  solemn  words  fell  from  the  Judge's 
lips  the  prisoner  echoed  them,  but  in  a  far  different 
tone  of  voice,  for  it  was  in  a  voice  of  passionate 
hatred  that  he  cried  out:  'And  may  God  have 
mercy  on  your  soul.  I  had  rather  stand  where  I 
am  than  where  that  jury  does  or  than  where  your 
Honor  does.  I  am  not  afraid  to  die,  Confound 
you,  (he  cried,  violently  struggling  with  the 
Deputy  Marshals,  who  .were  endeavoring  to  re 
press  him),  leave  me  alone.  I  know  where  I 
stand  on  this  business.  I  am  here  as  God's  man, 


c2g  TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  J.  GU1TEAU. 

and  don't  you  forget  it.  God  Almighty  will  curse 
every  man  who  has  had  anything  to  do  with  this 
act.  Nothing  but  good  has  come  of  General  Gar- 
field's  removal  and  that  will  be  posterity's  idea  of 
it.  Everybody  is  happy  here  except  a  few  cranks. 
Nothing  but  good  has  come  to  this  nation  from 
his  removal.  That  is  the  reason  the  Lord  wanted 
him  removed. 

Mr.  Scoville  took  an  exception  to  the  judgment 
and  sentence  of  the  Court;  and  while  this  was 
being  noted  the  prisoner  sat  tapping  nervously 
with  the  tips  of  his  fingers  upon  the  table.  Then 
he  broke  out  again  wildly : 

I'd  rather  a  thousand  times  be  in  my  position 
than  to  be  with  those  devils  who  have  hounded 
me  to  death.  I  will  have  a  flight  to  glory,  and  I 
am  not  afraid  to  go.  But  Corkhill  and  the  others 
are.  There  is  no  let  up  on  Corkhill,  the  scoundrel. 
He  has  a  permanent  job  down  below.  I  will  go 
to  glory  whenever  the  Lord  wants  me  to  go,  but 
I  will  probably  stay  down  here  a  good  many  years 
and  get  into  the  White  House.  I  know  how  I 
stand  on  this  business,  and  so  does  the  Lord,  and 
he  will  pull  me  through  with  the  help  of  two  or 
three  good  lawyers,  and  all  the  devils  in  hell  can't 
hurt  me. 

The  Court  then,  at  11.45,  adjourned,  and  Gui- 
teau  was  hurried  into  the  van  and  off  to  the  jail. 


CDfl70flQEb7 


